VoIP News: Taiwan Assigning VoIP Numbers, Skype In Radio Shack,
India's Legalization
By DAVID SIMS
TMCnet CRM Alert Columnist
VoIP news you may have missed over the weekend:
Taiwan's Directorate-General of Telecommunications announced that they
will allow voice over the Internet protocol users to be assigned a
phone number, a move the China Post says makes it seem that "the high
age of Web communication is on the doorstep."
The soon-to-be assigned numbers will start with 070, the Post says,
followed by eight other digits: "With the number, users will be able
to call from their cellphones or regular phones to an Internet phone
without the need of a computer."
Taiwanese telecom service operators can now acquire a license to own
multiple sets of Internet phone numbers so long as their applications
are approved. 100 million sets of numbers have been open for
acquisition, the Post says, adding that "once they own these numbers,
service providers are entitled to resell them to their customers."
ZDNet reported that Skype Technologies is dipping its toe in the U.S.
retail store market, as they're expected to announce today that
they've struck a partnership with consumer electronics chain
RadioShack.
More than 3,000 RadioShack locations nationwide on Monday "will begin
offering the Skype Starter Kit, which includes the software that
enables a customer to use Skype's free computer-to-computer telephone
service, a headset and 30 minutes of Skype's premium service, with
which a user can call a landline or cell phone," ZDNet cites company
executives saying.
India's Economic Times says the recent liberalization of India's net
telephony "may not result in a substantial reduction in tariffs for
national long-distance calls," but remains "good news for enterprises
as well as consumers."
Apart from the obvious reduction of costs, consumers can "look forward
to more net telephony-driven applications such as integration of
audio, video and text," the journal says.
Rajiv Sharma, CEO, AirTel-Enterprise Services tells the journal that
"tariffs are already at very low levels and in the short run, they are
unlikely to dip further. But in the long run, with the entry of more
players and competition, rates will drop."
IP applications, not simply lower-priced calls, are seen as driving
the adoption of VoIP in the Indian consumer market: "With lower local
tariffs, the driver for IP telephony will be advanced IP
applications. For instance, integration between audio, video and text,
voice workflows based on IVR, etc.," Alok Shende, who heads the
telecom practice at Frost & Sullivan, India tells the Economic Times.
With its "newly found legal status," voice quality too is expected to
improve, as Sharma says: "It will cease to be a matter of concern
following the introduction of new norms. With regulation in place,
quality will improve."
David Sims is contributing editor for TMCnet. For more articles please
visit David Sims' columnist page.
Copyright 2005 Techonology Marketing Corporation (TMC)
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