MyPeople, a division of Momentum Telecom, which has started to offer wholesale VoIP services to any small and medium sized cable operator, who can then in turn offer the service to their consumers. It is a business model that has been tried before with marginal success. Net2Phone was chasing that market, and go some traction, before being bought out by former parent, IDT Corp.
The launch of My People (wholesale) shows how crowded and commoditized the VoIP service provider business has become. It doesn’t bode well for folks who are pure play service providers such as Sun Rocket and Vonage. But what kind of fate awaits folks like VoX, which just announced new plans, that are pretty competitively prices. A 1000 minutes across the U.S. and Canada for just $14.95 or VoX Unlimited plan plus 1000 VoX Worldwide Minutes across 34 popular countries for $39.95. They are also offering wholesale packages to resellers.
How long will we keep seeing the emergence of me-too VoIP Service Providers? And what will be their exit strategy? Any thoughts folks? I wonder when, not if, will I see a press release saying, “How to start your own VoIP provider in a day?”
HOW to start your own VOIP service in 30 seconds======I can get ya Reselling Packet8, SunRocket, Opex Voip in about 30 seconds!
Skibare
I expect VoIP to break out of it’s rather colorless mold into something much more exciting once Microsoft’s enterprise offering Mobile Communicator (w/VoIP) transforms the mobile phone industry later this year and into 2007. And if MS can create a consumer offering with the same technology, it will turn the mobile phone industry upside-down.
Net2Phone still exists. Still enabling service providers and cable operators.
Any thoughts folks?
VoIP will be a marketing driven, slowly shrinking business opportunity. Communications services will integrate different sensuous modes (text, voice, images) and compete on presence qualities.
Nice device by the way…
The wholesale model is a joke. All cable operators of any size have been rolled up, or in the alternative, already ink’d deals with a Net2Phone. All that is left are very rural, very small cable cos – not exactly a good Voip target customer, plus you cannot get any leverage or mass.
Ok, lets look at the residential market. Customer has to have high-speed internet access, but not from a Bell (DSL). So that leaves us with (essentially) with people receiving broadband access from their cable company, who is or will be selling Voip as an add on. Today, Vonage is cheaper (alot) than my cable company’s Voip product, but (a) it wont be for long, and (b) my Bell phone line is already only $40 a month all I can eat. Some will sign up, but there will not be enough to sustain the business models.