Friday, September 12. 2008VoIP Over HSPA Begins To Make WavesJohn Linton One of the things that interested me most about HSPA used on a mobile handset was how successfully it could be used to make VoIP calls and therefore reduce the cost of mobile calls to the customer. VoIP charges via ADSL are pretty much established as major money savers for both residential and business wire line users and there seemed, to me, there would be no reason why the same scenario wouldn't apply to VoIP on a mobile using HSPA. I have been aware of the various MSN and Skype versions of VoIP over mobile for a while and had seen the proliferation of handsets with 'standard' VoIP firmware built in to them or easily downloadable from the handset manufacturer's web site. Exetel's own testing and the testing of 20+ Exetel customers of the Optus 3G HSPA service over the past few weeks has been overwhelmingly positive in terms of call quality using various different 3G hand sets and different VoIP software implementations. Everything I read in the US and UK technology press is equally favourable - at least as far as I can see. So I was puzzled by the reaction to Freshtel's "announcement" of its VoIP over 3G plans as 'bagged out' in this article in the Australian yesterday: http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,24324597-15306,00.html While the Freshtel service uses WiFi which is not particularly widespread (as opposed to 3G) the 'slamming' of the Freshtel claims of "reducing mobile costs by 50%" seemed to be more than a touch 'hysterical' and quite odd. Obviously the mobile carriers won't like their mobile network being used to remove mobile revenue but, you would have thought, that they would have known that would be an inevitable consequence of offering a data service - Data = VoIP = Data. No amount of 'secret deals' with hardware manufacturers to disable VoIP use is going to be effective - Luddites never win - "Technology always finds a way" (to misquote Jurassic Park). Personally I wouldn't have thought that a WiFi implementation with 30 cents per minute mobile to mobile calls was particularly worrisome in any event; which made the 'attack' even harder to understand. I would have thought that a 3G VoIP over HSPA service with 15 cents a minute mobile to mobile calls (or free mobile to mobile calls) would be something that would be more attractive and I'll be interested to see what happens when Exetel release such a service in the very, very near future. My guess is nothing - because we are a tiny company and the number of sales we would make would be so small it won't be noticed. Then again - as seen from their recent annual report - Freshtel is less than a tenth the size of Exetel, so maybe 'tininess' isn't the issue. Perhaps it's the concept that has to be attacked with 'ultimate force' in case more than a tiny number of mobile users ever get to understand that not only can they cut their mobile bill by 50% they can almost certainly cut it by 75% and that you don't actually have to commit to 'capped' plans with all their 'hidden' over charges bringing the whole 'capped plan scam' to a screeching halt? I don't really believe that either. It's too early, for us, to make any sort of prediction of how many people will sign up for the Exetel HSPA service when it's released next week or how many of the people who do sign up will do so on the basis that they want to use VoIP to reduce their mobile call monthly bills. If pushed I would only be able to say that there would be a lot of zeros after the decimal point of the percentage of the total number of mobile users in Australia. It does make me wonder though.......about what the mobile carriers in Australia and in other countries have factored in to their future planning in terms of VoIP impact on mobile call revenue. In my simplistic terms HSPA means that mobile calls to land lines in Australia should cost the user 10 cents per unlimited call (plus the IP traffic charge) and mobile to mobile calls should cost 7.5 cents per 30 seconds (plus the IP traffic charge). SMS should cost 5 cents per 160 character message and, using something like fring, many calls would not cost anything at all (except for the IP traffic charge). Sure, the mobile carrier is getting the IP charges (which are relatively expensive compared to land lines but very inexpensive compared to mobile call charges and SMS charges). However all those mobile networks have been built on usage and cost and sell price assumptions that are different to IP charge assumptions. Doubtless all of the 'facts' of possible VoIP usage over HSPA have been carefully considered and dealt with by every mobile network owner. As the article points out - the actual per minute charges if a user actually uses their full 'cap' are a fraction of the 'head line' rates which means that the mobile carriers are charging far less than they used to for calls. I'm beginning to wonder whether the mobile carriers 'experts' saw pure data services as net added revenue and didn't fully take in to consideration that data (via VoIP) would actually cannibalize their over priced voice minute revenue and their 'super cash cow' - SMS revenue? However, at even the most generous estimates, they aren't close to VoIP calls of 10 cents unlimited to land lines and 15 cents a minute for mobile to mobile - at least as far as I can see. The other issue remains that they are fixed minimum spends as opposed to an Exetel type plan which is only pay for the calls you make (at much lower prices). Fixed per mnth charges ALWAYS disadvantage a customer (no sh** Sherlock). I'm going to buy myself a Nokia 95 (or whatever seems the most appropriate hand set) tomorrow and begin my own personal testing of Exetel's VoIP service over the Exetel HSPA service to see for myself how effective the service is in various different areas. If it's as good as the other people testing it say it is then the next few months are going to be very interesting. Trackbacks
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To me the problem with the plan to save money by using VoIP over HSPA is the upfront cost of a 3G/HSPA handset.
It is O.K. for those who already own a 3G/HSPA handset, but if I have to outlay between $500-$1000 - how long before I can say I am saving money on the deal. Has anyone compiled a list of handsets that are capable of making VoIP over HSPA and where we can buy them from, without having to spend too much money??? Comment (1)
The web site now has a list of compatible handsets:
http://www.exetel.com.au/residential-hspa-compatibility.php We will be sorting those by type and likely price by the end of next week. I'm not sure we can provide information as to where to buy them - prices change too often. Comments (3)
Lawrie, the cost of current compatible handsets is already falling rapidly. Following on from this, before you know it, will be the inclusion of the feature in 'lower-end' phones. So we should find that over time many users will actually unkowingly equip themselves of this feature as they update their phones in their normal fashion.
Coming months will be an excellent time (if not already) to buy the (high end at the time of release) Nokia N95 JL mentioned he is considering, as the N96 is most likely close to being released here, if it isn't already. Comment (1)
As a user of a capped plan I have to say I agree with the article in the Australian and find the Freshtel rates, as quoted, a bit of a yawn.
First up there is no point considering the "Monopoly money" call costs quoted in most capped plan descriptions as anything other than marketing BS. At the end of the day, AND IF you stay inside your cap, the call cost is simply cap plan cost divided by minutes of billable airtime per month. In my case on the Optus $50 for $300(should be in BS$)I typically get 2.5 to 3 hours of airtime per month and hence a call rate in actual money (the kind you can buy bread and milk with) of between 33c and 28c per minute. Optus makes a great fuss of "charging" me around $150-220 for this usage (including some SMS) and then "forgives" it as it's inside my cap. If I were to look at the recent $20 for $300(again in BS$) cap from a new market entrant on the Optus network that number (for my usage pattern) would be between 13c and 11c per minute. Freshtel would have quite a challenge reducing my bill by 50% especially when rental and data costs were factored in. Maybe my usage of between 1/2 and 2/3 of my cap per month, or my calling pattern is unusual, but I'd be surprised if it was. Great blog BTW. One of the few things on the net I try to read every day. Comment (1)
You're quite correct which was why I was so surprised at the article in the first place (WiFi based costings roughly equivalent to a sensible use of a capped plan isn't exactly head line material).
My comments were more directed towards a 3G/VoIP combination and how 10 cent untimed calls on a pay only if you use basis compares to the capped plan charges made by mobile carriers. Comments (3)
A few thoughts.
I'm currently on holiday and at the resort there's no internet at all. I'm using an entry level NextG mobile plus the X-Lite softphone to make calls while simultaneously doing VNC and Hamachi support calls; and getting mostly reasonable results. (I have an Exetel mobile too, but here in the scrub it's getting 'bars' but not quality and is unuseable - probably due to reflections, etc.) The one area that VoIP over a mobile falls down is that if you have a drop in signal strength (down to less than one bar) it reduces the throughput of the handset below the 26k (with this particular codec) needed. Since SIP doesn't understand what's going on, rather than dropping packets it stretches them out, resulting in your outgoing voice sounding like a tape recorder while you turn it off and on two or so times a second. Sometimes it catches up again when signal improves, other times the call drops. This mode of failure might be one of the biggest problems that could affect mobile VoIP. I don't take any VoIP over WiFi claims seriously, because there's no guarantee that the connectivity to the wifi node has sufficient and reliable upstream bandwidth. A 512/128K connected WiFi router wouldn't sustain two simultaneous calls for example. Comment (1)
Buy a nokia E71
Much more business like and a very good phone. I'll be moving to this service when optus expand the coverage to the rest of Tas (december 08 I think) Comment (1)
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