Pulver's WiSIP Voice Over Internet Protocol Over 802.11b (VOIP over Wi-Fi) phone is shipping - $249.95. Commissioned by Pulver, this handset looks to all the world like an ordinary cordless or cellular phone. The WiSIP promises to be far less "fussy", proprietary, expensive, or unavailable for mere mortals to purchase than other "designed for enterprise" VOIP over Wi-Fi handsets. So now you can take your WiSIP phone and roam (theoretically; authentication issues such as "click to agree" redirect web pages need to be addressed) onto any available Wi-Fi connection and be able to send and receive calls. Preferably free; for me, that includes my new favorite coffee shop in Redmond, any King County Library branch, anywhere in my home (coverage from two 802.11b APs), breakfast with my Digital Networking Amateur Radio buddies (quite the story in itself), and if I were a student at the nearby Cascadia Community College / University of Washington at Bothell campus. In short, WiSIP is a classic example of disruptive technology; do it yourself cellular telephony. Chairman Powell, if you thought the emergence of Skype signaled that "it's all over" for wireline telephony, then I can't imagine what you're going to think when Pulver presses a WiSIP into your hand in the coming week.
Until recently, the only VOIP service provider that specifically supported the WiSIP phone was Pulver's Free World Dialup (FWD) system. Now, a new VOIP telephony service provider supports the WiSIP as a client device - VoicePulse. Developments such as this is exactly what VOIP is all about - competion and innovation!
In January weblog entries, Pulver reveals that Free World Dialup and Vonage are conducting interoperability experiements. This is huge... Once the issues are worked out between these two systems, interoperability between other... all other VOIP telephony service providers should be largely a non-issue. Then the real "fun" starts, as the viral effect kicks in. Vonage has every reason to drive towards "direct" (not via the PSTN) VOIP connectivity with all other VOIP service providers. Note that I didn't say all other VOIP telephony service providers; but VOIP services that have nothing to do with telephony - Instant Messaging, Skype, FWD, and others yet to emerge. If a Vonage customer can connect "direct" via VOIP (without using the PSTN), that's money that Vonage doesn't have to pay into the PSTN.
While Pulver doesn't seem to recognize the existence of Broadband Wireless Internet Access (when he mentions wireless, it's exclusively wireless telephony and 802.11b/a/g / Wi-Fi), these specific activities of his are powerful influences on the emergence of BWIA.
Steve Stroh
Comments