Recent announcements from Xcelis and AT&T are a study in contrast.
Earlier Xcelis had announced a service wherein a cell user gets unlimited airtime to any US number, by proxying the call through Xcelis using phone-to-phone service offered by cell service providers. This was doomed to be a failure because the cell providers are not going to standstill. Now it looks like thye have redefined themselves to be purveyor of a product rather than a service. Their new plan seems to be to sell a product which will patch a cell call and a wireline or VoIP call. I am not concerned whether there is a market demand for this or not. Similar products are already available in the market from i2 and Pulver innovations and WHP wireless. Since this is n end user device, there could be many suppliers and if the market determines it is a useful product the competitive market will reduce the price and increase the functionality. I would say that Xcelis has recognized the reality.
Now let us look at AT&T. They think they can offer enhanced services and can charge premium to boot. Call Record and Send and Call filtering two examples of such premium service. These features could be easily developed in the device itself. There is no need to pay a monthly fee to AT&T. I implore any and all VoIP proponents to keep this in mind and not fall into the “Bellhead” trap of paying a monthly fee. Remember the refrain: VoIP is a product, not a service.
Posted by aswath at December 31, 2004 11:26 AM