Much confusion has been created in the voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) market, mainly by so-called industry experts who bombard potential home and small and medium enterprise (SME) users with irrelevant facts, says Canadian-based HowzitOnline.com spokesman Allan Carbardo.
"There are four basic issues when selecting a VOIP solution: call costs, voice quality, ease of use and coverage," he says.
"But technical people are creating side issues that are not important. The main points to consider when selecting a VOIP solution for home or small business use are savings on call costs, being able to hear the person speaking clearly at the other end, ease of use and whether there are limitations to call destinations."
Voice quality
Carbardo maintains that VOIP is only suited to someone phoning nationally or internationally on a regular basis.
"Typically, someone with family or friends either in another city or overseas, or a company that does business in the main centres of SA or another country, and makes regular overseas or national calls."
Calls to other popular destinations provide savings of 80% to 95% on standard Telkom rates, he points out.
Carbardo argues that voice quality is also a key issue, adding that HowzitOnline.com uses a proprietary bandwidth compression technology, which ensures good voice quality. The technology is ideally suited to the bandwidth-constrained environment in which South African users operate, he says.
"To ascertain the voice quality, prospective users must test the service to evaluate the quality."
Voice quality on dial-up is not always good, he says. Users will also need to pay for the call, defeating the object of VOIP.
"So ideally, an ADSL or similar line is recommended. The most suitable connection for home and SME use is broadband. These are typically ADSL, ISDN, MyWireless and iBurst.
Back to basics
"In terms of ease of use, the phone looks and works the same as a normal phone. Instead of requiring a phone line, the handset plugs into a computer USB or Ethernet connection," says Carbardo. He adds that the implications are enormous in terms of reduced call costs when roaming overseas.
HowzitOnline.com marketing director Charles Smith believes VOIP should be taken back to basics.
"The consumer is confused by all these consultants to the industry who actually cloud the issue. Consumers don`t need to know the intricate details of VOIP; they simply need to know that if it works it works," Smith says.
"VOIP is not an engineered solution, it is a practical one. Many so-called experts over-complicate the issue trying to sound intelligent or by unnecessarily applying too much theoretical knowledge."
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