John Linton
I read this brief article on the latest ACMA 'findings over a cup of coffee this morning:
http://www.itwire.com/content/view/15878/1095/1/1/
Perhaps the various figures quoed are correct - they seem way off the mark to me, but I have very limited knowlwdge.
So I found some parts of the actual report on line and read over the detail - not easy to undestand but it didn't seem very enthusiastic about IP voice services.
What I picked up from the article and then the actual report is that ACMA has found something new to 'regulate' and its slavering at the thought of how it can make an even bigger dog's breakfast of this 'new' technology and its speed of take up than it has already done.
Firstly, it should be obvious even to a bunch of brain dead bureaucrats that VoIP is the single most beneficial aspect of IP technology for business users that has happened in 20 years now that it's finally mature enough to be widely used. Personally, I think that any management in any commercial (or government) enterprise that isn't already using VoIP should be dismissed as being completely incompetent.
Call cost savings apart (and those savings are considerable) - the features and functions that IP telephony provide, at a fraction of the cost of 'conventional' PBX technologies, are so useful and now becoming essential that 'conventional' telephony means that every organisation still using it is not only wasting money but is costing itself the efficiencies the new capabilities of VoIP provide.
Exetel couldn't operate today without VoIP - and that scenario is becoming increasingly true for many other companies across almost every industry sector. VoIP has made it possible for Exetel personnel in Sri Lanka, Perth, Mosman and Randwick to have voice contact with each other and Exetel's customers and suppliers as if they were located in the same office. VoIP has allowed Exetel's customers to log faults via their telephone handsets and then receive 'voice' updates on the progress of their fault or their change of service at one twentieth of the cost per call of using conventional telephony and one hundredth of the cost of the quipment required to do that - and the list of cost savings and operational advantages of VoIP just goes on and on.
The porting of 'conventional numbers' from PSTN/ISDN services to VoIP services is now much more easily possible which means one of the biggest deterrents to commercial organisations moving to VoIP (the loss of their inbound telephone number ranges) is almost gone - together with the cost of renting standard 'business lines' at their exhorbitant prices. The other issues of sending and receiving faxes over IP (FoIP) have also been resolved VoIP is now easily the better solution for outbound calls of all types even incurring the costs of leaving a company's current PSTN/ISDN lines in place (thus incurring their rental) for 'emergencies'.
So, my concern on reading that article and then reading some of the actual report earlier today, is that ACMA will start to impose conditions on the supply of VoIP that will slow down the minor surge in 'popularity' it's now beginning to enjoy. For once Telstra and the regulator will become bosom buddies.