A lot of people including James Enck and Mr VoIP Abramson have been writing about MCI’s foray into consumer VoIP. Smart sleuthing by one of Net2Phone customer’s has proved without doubt that indeed Net2Phone is powering the MCI VoIP service. He used his Net2Phone log-in information on the MCI pages, and he sailed through. I have been getting similar emails from another source, but time limitations and slow confirmations prevented me from writing. James has the complete lowdown on this. MCI is not making any statements, but neither is Net2Phone. What I have been able to pick up from my sources is that it is a “trial” and it doesn’t necessarily mean that this could turn into a long term business. MCI as you know is in the process of being bought out by Verizon. One must see the irony of the situation – at one time Net2Phone as ever so close to AT&T. In related news, there is word that IDT is looking to buy back Net2Phone. Something about this doesn’t seem right! If you remember, Net2Phone, was spun off from IDT in July 1999.
Interesting that MCI is offering residential VoIP. It has greatly de-emphasized providing telephone service to residential consumers, but probably is afraid it will lose most of the remaining customers if it does not implement VoIP fast. Seems to indicate power of upcoming transformation of telephony by VoIP.
For MCI’s de-emphasis of residential business, leading to an 18 percent decline in revenue in that segment year-over-year, see
press release
Why SIP is always associated with VOIP. I know VOIP but I’m totally clueless with SIP. I can’t believe I was wasting too much money making international calls when I could actually save a fortune by using VOIP and Skype. Now I’m enjoying unlimited PC to Landline and Mobile calls to 20 countries for only $11.55 per month. How cheap could that be 😉