Internet telephony

Internet telephony: very active domain in past few days. Google has become the latest global internet company to announce the launch of an instant messaging service with voice capability, called GoogleTalk. Not only Google enters direct competition with MSN, AOL, Yahoo, ICQ and others for instant messaging, but it also attacks voice over internet tenants such as Skype and Vonage. Can Google go a step further in providing voice over internet with connection to the PSTN, as Skype does? It is surely a real threat. Skype has immediately reacted, announcing two new services SkypeNet and SkypeWeb. The target is to reinforce its presence on the web in allowing developers to use Skype APIs in any online forum (online games, music, .). Simultaneously, Skype signed a strategic alliance with Intel, which is believed to take a minority stake in Skype.

Factual information is that PSTN long distance traffic is decreasing, while number of users and traffic of voice over internet services is strongly increasing. Today, almost everywhere, Universal Service Obligation (USO or USF) is funded by the PSTN usage. So everywhere, people are thinking how to maintain USO with decreasing funds. Many are now voicing that the solution is taxing VoIP. The FCC decided some months ago that VoIP was a data service and not a voice service, but recently posted a new report suggesting a tax on VoIP. Same approach is currently thought in Europe. A very hot and sensitive topic we will continue to check, with many implications for the VOIP service providers and the consumers.  To be continued….