Comments on: AOL Allows SIP Clients To Make Calls. This Is News?

By: PhoneBoy

PhoneBoy — Mon, 05 May 2008 05:57:32 +0000

Yeah if you can’t get paid to provide a service, particularly when the margins on that service are razor thin to begin with, you’re not going to want to take any serious risks or try something “too” new.

By: David Beckemeyer

David Beckemeyer — Sun, 04 May 2008 17:25:44 +0000

@spg the “IP PBXes, least cost routing, and small calling card operations” you mention, along with other kinds of fraud, and credit card fraud at large, is probably the single biggest thing that is killing VoIP as a landscape for innovation in new services. When it’s almost impossible to safely take your customer’s money, it’s pretty hard to make a business work. But now we are really getting off-topic

By: PhoneBoy

PhoneBoy — Sun, 04 May 2008 08:50:37 +0000

Skype could do all kinds of things if they wanted. Clearly they like the walled garden approach.

By: spg

spg — Sun, 04 May 2008 07:16:59 +0000

the issue is with IP PBXes, least cost routing, and small calling card operation. they would all be offloading exactly the FUP limit of traffic onto multiple accounts. try to stop that(through limiting calls from IP address or any other way) and you end up with a reputation similar to the betamax companies where everyone calls you a rip off. i think the two really big attractions of skype are #1 super easy configuration - SIP would definatly complicate that. the other attraction is $3/month for 10, 000 minutes of calls. that is way above the FUP of similar priced SIP offers(at least that i am aware of) sure skype could offer per minute pricing for SIP users; but skypes current per minute pricing is really not very attractive. i use skypeout but only for the included free calls and never for pay as you go. i have much cheaper options for that.

By: David Beckemeyer

David Beckemeyer — Sat, 03 May 2008 17:20:36 +0000

@spg - right. and what does that say about Skpye and using PC’s to make calls? If using Skype creates a natural “throttle” then that says people may still prefer telephones over PCs for making phone calls.

There are a few services that provide SIP credentials with an “unlimited” account but they usually have AUP limitations of some sort - Skype could simply have their policy be that they always charge the per minute rates for calls placed via SIP.

By: PhoneBoy

PhoneBoy — Sat, 03 May 2008 07:05:18 +0000

I have to agree with @spg, I don’t know too many VoIP providers that have both unlimited calling and permit you to connect with a random SIP client.

By: spg

spg — Sat, 03 May 2008 00:26:10 +0000

@David. i have often wondered with skype(and other discount VOIP services) if there pricing model would fall apart with SIP. the question that comes up in my mind is that having SIP outbound would cause a whole lot of their so called ‘unlimited’ plans to be used a whole lot more each month. they certainly do not want a lot of the accounts hitting the FUP limits. keeping the service ’softphone(and reverse engineered workaround) only’ may be acting as a throttle that keeps profit margins up.

By: David Beckemeyer

David Beckemeyer — Fri, 02 May 2008 18:40:43 +0000

True. AOL is not the 800 pound gorilla anymore for sure. But it’s a step, and AOL is still the most well-known brand to take such a step yet, so I have to give it something.

Skype could have offered a SIP interface to SkypeOut years ago, and yet they still haven’t done it. Dumb. They could have been taking my money all this time at essentially no cost to them - it’s essentially “free money” they are leaving on the table.

By: PhoneBoy

PhoneBoy — Fri, 02 May 2008 17:07:33 +0000

It’s funny. Telephony was built on interoperability. I’ve watched some old Bell System videos from the early part of the 20th Century on YouTube and am amazed it was possible to call ’round the world’ early into the 20th Century. The only way that could happen was connectivity and an adherence to standards on some level.

Now as the industry tries and recreates the system that Ma Bell so lovingly created, the industry loses sight of one of the most basic elements of that system: interoperability and an adherence to
standards.

While I applaud AOL for opening up on some level, I don’t think they are the 800 pound gorilla the industry needs to really start rallying around SIP.

By: David Beckemeyer

David Beckemeyer — Fri, 02 May 2008 16:20:32 +0000

For the record, I never said it was “great” - I simply aid it was less than insignificant

You’re kind of missing my point with the reference to SIP. Of course end-users don’t care about specific technologies - but they do care about usability that derives from interoperability and, when it comes to VoIP, that interoperability derives from SIP. Therefore promoting SIP (not necessarily to end-users, but to the industry/community/developers/partners) is a big deal, and generally a good thing for the ecosystem and ultimately for end-users.