There’s been a lot of talk lately about mobile VoIP. People feel like the mobile operators are about to lose their businesses to all those startups offering free and low cost calling by utilizing the data path of cellular networks. I have provided my views already on why I think these startups are not growing anywhere, and why IMS will wipe them out of the market altogether. Guess what? I’ve been prophetic in this one.
This week, a distinguished group of operators and vendors publicized an initiative called “One Voice” (here’s the PDF spec). These companies are AT&T Inc., Telefonica, TeliaSonera, Verizon, Vodafone, Orange, Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks, Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson. And their plan is to come up with a specific technical profile for voice and SMS services over LTE based on IMS.
Simply put, there is now serious work being done to take IMS into the next level and make sure that once LTE networks are deployed (=all IP cellular networks), their voice and SMS services will be provided robustly by the mobile operators.
What does this mean to all the downloadable VoIP clients out there? A death blow. Instead of utilizing LTE’s higher bandwidths and lower latencies for their own service, they will see the operators provide robust alternatives that don’t suffer from the same drawbacks that they do (being a downloadable application).
What does it mean to our industry? That IMS is taking center stage on LTE networks.
There are others who have written their opinion on One Voice over the past several days. Here are some of the best writings on this topic:
- Martin Sauter provides his insights on One Voice from a political and a technical viewpoints.
- Caroline Gabriel covers the dynamics that brought about the One Voice initiative.
- Stacey Higginbotham points at the missing players in One Voice.
- UPDATE: My other post on the subject at NoJitter.
It’s nice to have standards love-ins, but usable products trump standards. Skype, Google and others are building products, and probably have the momentum to do as they wish.
Exactly, you feel prophetic based on simple press releases, nothing substantial. The same thing was said about Wimax and it is nowhere. A press release does not make a business. I think you counted your chickens way too early, and you will not have any dinner nor breakfast for that reason.
Paul & Johnny,
While VoIP and startups of VoIP is great and cool, the most amount of voice calls in the world today still belong to the carriers. This hasn’t changed. While people communicate in other means these days as well, I don’t see this changing.
Cable providers are already using VoIP services. Others will follow suite.
The fact that mobile operators are still committed to IMS after all this time means something. The fact that they are now focusing on the current services they provide means they are still in the game and in a way that startups will have challenges dealing with.
Tsahi
Nah, they were united on Wimax and that is a simple slush fund. So is LTE, so is IMS.
All talk, no action.
I don’t know enough about Wimax to comment on it, but I’d say that you are correct about LTE – no real action.
The thing is – until LTE happens, no mobile VoIP anyway. And once it does (and it will, maybe under a different name or technology), mobile providers will be ready with their own IP infrastructure that will most probably include IMS.
That’s a lot of IF’s and Maybe’s and Probably’s, but I’d bet that they will happen. Just not during 2010…
Not true…a company called xG Technology is rolling out a full mobile all IP based network as we speak. Unlicensed spectrum to boot. xG is the only co. that will get anywhere with true mobile voip. The rest are dreamers.
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