aswath,
it's hard not to getting the feeling the VOIP market is beginning to fragment into different segments - among them the feature crowd (which includes myself and andy abramson) and the price crowd (irwin lazar). this is part of a market's evolution and growth, which will also include consolidation/survival of the fittest, and the technology's emergence from the leading edge to the mainstream.

mark

"it's hard not to getting the feeling the VOIP market is beginning to fragment into different segments -" because it not only is, but always was.

VoIP is not only saving money, it should be saving 99%.
In principle the infrastructure IS already there, that is THE INTERNET and the customers should just use it.

But what is happening?

A miriades of Providers are trying to make as many customers as possible, chaining them to a proprietary system, some do not even say what codec.
They allure them with "free IP to IP" then sell more or less expensive "in and out".

In principle what they say is "Let's fight the Telco's monopoly", but the result is nothing else than a (cheaper) monopoly.
And it is cheaper, because the leasing of the infrastructures is already paid by the customer.

And they do not say that theirs is a close Network and the way out is through the PSTN, the "termination".

It is true, you just pay the local call, because you already pay the Internet trip to another provider.

I do not say VoIP is not a great thing, I say it is the greatest after the invention of the Computer and the Internet.

What I say is that, since the customer already pays the Internet access, he should just pay the additional use of the local gateway, which should use a standard codec which should make the VoIP Network an open Network and not another series of small and big monopolies.

I tell you what THE ONLY FUTURE of VoIP can be.
The use of the Internet for sending voice packets. This and nothing else.

Skype is already leasing its system to a company in Taiwan, soon it will be somebody else.
History repeats itself.
The big monopolies leasing the switches and the lines to emerging Telco companies.
It just has another name and lower pricing...

Patrizia

http://www.worldonip.com