The following article recently appeared on the blog of the Manchester Guardian. We think it should be read by everybody interested in the development of VOIP systems: Mobile firms say no to free calls online On the internet you can email for free, search for free, Twitter for free but not yet phone for free. Or at least, not in the numbers you may expect. True, last week Skype overtook AT&T as the biggest provider of cross-border calls, according to TeleGeography, but that was mainly people communicating from their computers accounting for 8% of all traffic. What about the other 92%? The situation is roughly like this. It is possible to route all phone calls, especially international ones, across the net at little or no extra cost beyond your broadband subscription. But once calls leave the net, they rejoin a local network that charges a termination fee – which is sometimes huge, even after last week’s welcome reforms by the EU. One answer is to get a mobile that connects to the web. In theory, you can then phone anyone in the world for no extra cost – as long as they too have a phone linked to the web on a compatible system. At a time of recession, this is a good deal for everyone. The catch is there is a massive lobby opposing it. Why? Almost all mobile operators stand to lose massive revenues from from their traditional customers if web telephony becomes the norm. Their wrath is currently focused on Nokia’s plan to embed a one-touch Skype button in its upcoming N97. Most operators are threatening not to stock it unless the Skype button is removed. One that isn’t is 3 which, unlike the others, is 3G only and doesn’t have a legacy of subscribers generating vast revenues. 3 already has a “Skype” mobile that cleverly combines use of Skype’s web network with 3’s own 3G network for starting and terminating calls. If a caller on 3’s Skype phone in London talks to someone in Hong Kong on the same system, all calls are free apart from the usual charges – £9 a month for Skype or £14 for unlimited data. Newcomers such as Truphone go further, enabling the call to start from a wireless network at home or Wi-Fi hotspot so you bypass mobile networks. There is a free download for an iPod Touch that turns it into a user-friendly Truphone web phone (Skype released its own this week). The company has, cannily, started a new service enabling TruPhone users to talk with Skype users. But Skype, sadly, is not reciprocating. With more than 400 million registered users, it intends its proprietary system to be the world standard. Last week it looked as though Skype was becoming more open-minded when it said users would now be able to communicate with the open standard SIP (session initiation protocol). But this is a move for Skype to capture more of the corporate market, not an opening of its walled garden. Skype is streets ahead of everyone in web telephony but this could change as there are plenty of “free” web telephone systems including those run by Google, Microsoft and Yahoo. Google is moving strongly into mobiles by trying to get its Android open source operating system embedded in as many phones as possible. There are only one or two now but that will change if Google levers its awesome power in search to get people to use Google Talk on its phones. Anyone thinking that Google is still weak in mobiles should look at new stats showing it has 97.5% of the mobile search market. The prospects for mobiles on the web could be hugely boosted if the forthcoming Ofcom auction of spectrum spawns ubiquitous super-fast access via Wi-Fi. That would boost the likes of Truphone and Google, and also Nokia – which must be planning for the day when operators lose their oligopolistic grip on the market. When operators recently started opening their walled gardens to content creators, it resulted in an explosion of creativity with the iPhone alone generating 25,000 applications. Think what would happen if the cost of making a telephone call anywhere in the world were next to nothing. It would set the scene for a fresh explosion of creativity across the globe – recession or no recession. victorkeegan.com guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions We have just completed the addition of callback mode to our calling card software. In callback mode, the user calls a local access number; our system answers the call and plays one long beep, then hangs up. While it is playing the beep, our calling card system captures the caller id of the user. About 10 seconds later, we call the user back on his caller id number. He can them place a call to any destination permitted on his plan. As an example, if you wanted to use your cell phone to make an occasional call to France, and you had Verizon wireless service, you could make this call for only $1.49 a minute to any landline in France. With the Telopar call back system, you could make this call to France from your cell phone for about $.03 a minute (1/50 of the Verizon cost). On the other hand, if you make lots of calls to France, you could pay Verizon $3.99 a month and then only have to pay $.07 per minute for your France calls. So in this case we are only 1/2 of the Verizon cost. We don’t mean to imply that Verizon is more expensive than any other US cell phone service. It isn’t. The callback system can be implemented for any Telopar reseller. There is no additional cost for the use of our calling card software; it is included in the cost per minute of your calls. So call us today at 1-866-457-0071 or +1-44-207-099-8621 for information on becoming a Telopar reseller.We came across the following article recently. It talks about the ways businesses react to economic stress, and how some businesses are able to prosper in those kinds of situations. We think this article has great applicability to everybody in the VOIP business, and we urge you to read it. Seven Secrets to Slow Time SuccessWell, it’s here. Fat Tuesday or Mardi Gras. The start of Lent. If you need something to give up for Lent, try giving up the high cost of traditional phone service. Switch your business phone system to VOIP and give up a big portion of your phone bill. Need more information. Give us a call at 1-866-457-0071 or visit our web site at http://telopar.netThe hottest topic on Google search today is the New American Tea Party. THERE’S A NEW “AMERICAN TEA PARTY” SITE AND FACEBOOK PAGE UP. And it all seems to have been started by a guy by the name of Rick Santelli; you can hear his comments here What does all of this have to do with the VOIP business? Well, it’s this: People around the US are beginning to realize that our government cannot spend its way into prosperity by building train lines for gamblers from LA to Las Vegas, Prosperity comes from businesses growing, expanding, adding new employees, and curculating the money back into the economy. VOIP is just the sort of technology that could revolutionize the telephone industry in this country. We in the VOIP business are trying to provide a better product at a better price. We have figured out that sending voice over the internet is much more efficient than the old telco switched network. So, if you want to do your bit for the US and global economy, move one of your customers to VOIP, save them some money and cycle that money back into the economy. If we can help, give us a call at 1-866-457-0071 or visit our web site at http://telopar.net