Where is VOIP

My favourite classical radio station is WQXR New York.  Great music plus snippets of news from my favourite city.  Listening to it this morning it struck me that here I was listening to a continuous stream of sound from the US for free.  So what  - bandwidth is really really cheap.  Well we know that its cheap, its a given, but I don’t think we realise at a deep emotional level how very very cheap it is. 

Companies are cashing in on this in the US by using the Internet for voice calls.  8x8 will give you a telephone handset that plugs into your broadband connection and all the calls you want to make in the US for $20 per month.   If you want to call a UK landline that will be 2c per minute.  Our sales guy in the states uses VOIP for all his calls and quality is great.  It’s the only phone he has.

For the small business 8x8 will provide a virtual PBX.  All the features of a PBX with one small exception - the users can be all over the world.  

I want it. I want it now.

Where are the UK companies leaping into this major business opportunity?  Gossiptel by their own admission  https://www.gossiptel.com/plans/?prices=yes only barely match BT on price.  Overseas calls at 2.5p per minute are standard third party provider rates.  And you have to pay nearly £100 for your handset.

Get real. 

Time is short.  People like 8x8 can dive into the market over here at short notice. They will - they already offer better prices for UK calls than gossiptel $0.02 to landlines (less than 1p) and $0.26 to mobiles (about 15p).  There is no bar to entry for them, If I bought an internet phone and they gave me an account I guess I could use them now.  All it needs for them is some marketing and bingo they own the market.

The only company that has competitive rates as far as I can see is Pipemedia.  1.25p for a landline, 12.5p mobile and 1.05p for the USA.  (yes you call the USA cheaper than your next door neighbour.  I said bandwidth is cheap).  Where is the marketing? where is the advertising? 

The comms industry over here is sleepwalking into a position where the big american VOIP companies are going to descend and take the market.  They need to act now before they get eaten up. 

Bob
Textor