No Free Ride For VoIP Providers

One of the common misconceptions in the Voice over IP arena is the idea that VoIP service providers are taking a free ride on the nation's telecom networks. Nothing is further from the truth, according to several VoIP providers who talked about the subject at this week's VON show in Santa Clara, Calif.

Michael Tribolet, vice president of operations for Vonage, told a keynote audience on Tuesday that contrary to popular belief, Vonage and other VoIP providers contribute indirectly to the Universal Service funds and to access fee charges, via the dollars they pay for access to bandwidth and the public switched telephone network.

"There's no free ride -- we don't trench up the fiber and use roach clips to get access," Tribolet said. "As operations guy, I see the bill [for network access], and we pay it. One of the biggest misnomers is that we don't pay anything."

Bryan Martin, chairman and CEO of VoIP provider 8x8 Inc., which offers the Packet8 VoIP service, had a similar story to tell.

"There's a perception that [VoIP providers] don't pay into 911 support funds or taxes," Martin said. But to connect IP calls to switched numbers, Martin said 8x8 buys minutes on a wholesale basis from service providers."When we hand off a call to a provider, that call is billed to Packet8 as a regular call," Martin said. "It's something that's not widely understood. The idea that all VoIP calls are somehow bucking the system is just not true."

Show Floor Buzzing

One stroll around the exhibit floor at the VON show was proof enough that the VoIP market has a lot of buzz. Booths were packed with people, part of a crowd that show host Jeff Pulver said was more customers than vendors.

Unlike past years' shows, when vendor representatives far outnumbered customers, Pulver said this year there were more potential buyers of technology than vendor reps in the audience, according to registration statistics. While the count isn't final yet, Pulver said this year's show could end up being the best-attended VON since the show's inception in 1996.

New Use For Old Numbers?One of the peculiar parts of AT&T's VoIP service announcement was the fact that at least initially, the only phone numbers available would be from area codes in New Jersey and Texas.

While the Texas piece is still a puzzle, one anonymous industry observer took a guess at where the New Jersey numbers came from.

"Since they've laid off 60,000 people over the last few years, they probably had enough internal numbers to satisfy the needs for VoIP," our source said.