December 14th, 2006
You are currently browsing the articles from the VoIP Digest written on December 14th, 2006.
> Skype has announced the new $14.99 Skype Unlimited Calling Plan . The Skype Unlimited Calling Plan gives you a full year of unlimited calls to anyone, on any phone, within the US and Canada for just $14.95 ($29.95 after January 31st 2007). Also include in the $14.95 Skype Unlimited Plan: 12 months of unlimited calls to any phone in the US and Canada - right from your computer. More than an hour of international calls. Over $50 in coupons to get a Motorola headset, Netgear WiFi phone, and a Polycom speakerphone. This is an awesome deal. Think about it, for just $14.99, you get unlimted US and Canada calling, $50 towards Skype Hardware, and 100 minutes of free International calls. This is a total value of over $300, for just $14.99! Other might not think this is such an awesome deal because Skype calling is currently free in the US and Canada, but hey, all great things come to an end (especially when they are free). Take advantage of the $14.99 Skype Unlimited Calling Promotion Now !
Written by Smith On VoIP - Garrett Smith's Insights on VoIP P on December 14th, 2006 with no comments.
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Small Medium Enterprises are clueless on the possibilities that VoIP opens for additional application delivery and communications convergence. Thanks VoIP service providers, you managed to sell customers on price, and now all of us have to suffer. According to The Register , a report polling 181 UK small medium enterprises, found that of the 57% of companies that were already using VoIP, approximately 10% had no clue what convergence meant, while 40% thought convergence meant one bill for all communication services. Talk about a lack of customer education by VoIP service providers! VoIP service providers certainly did a great job selling them on the cost savings of VoIP (most respondants were utilizing VoIP for this reason), but it makes me cringe to think of the difficulty these same providers are going to have selling additional IP applications once their VoIP subscription growth plateau. As usual, by selling and marketing price, service providers are creating a market place in which customers view the service as nothing more then a cost saving commodity. Their strategy was great for the short term land grab, but at what cost to future ancillary service sales?
Written by Smith On VoIP - Garrett Smith's Insights on VoIP P on December 14th, 2006 with no comments.
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Every time I don my headset and call up my Comcast Rhapsody Radio's New Age channel, I am thankful for the choice.
Or maybe I can select a channel where I can hear real old time cheatin' songs, or seek out a propulsive house beat guaranteed to fire up the writing part of my brain.
I could [...]
Written by Russell Shaw on December 14th, 2006 with no comments.
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Earlier today I blogged about how Skype's new $14.95 a year ($29.99 a month for sign-up after January 31) unlimited North American calling plan is a full-frontal assault on the ATA-based VoIP service providers like Vonage, as well as the telcos.
But amazingly, a good portion of the mainstream media as well as some bloggers [...]
Written by Russell Shaw on December 14th, 2006 with no comments.
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Skype released this video to the U.S. and Canadian press for editing into nightly news reports. It has (a) sound bites by a Skype executive (the new payment plan), (b) a finance counselor (saving money is a good thing), and (c) a user (staying in touch with family is good. especially when it doesn't cost you as much.)
I'm posting this less because it is newsworthy than the contrast in brand notes. On the one hand you have Don Albert emphasizing Skype's value added features, how it improves communication and is qualitatively different from phone calls. On the other hand, you have Skype's Unlimited Calling plan coming in at a disruptive 10% of comparable plans from AT&T, Verizon, Vonage et al. Which message comes through stronger? Savings.
Skype's biggest challenge? Getting people to understand this is $X per year, not per month. When you hear $40, you say "I'm paying about that now, what's new about that?" But I pay $40 monthly to AT&T long distance for flat rate service throughout the US (not sure about Canada). I may just pocket that.
Does adoption rise when people pay? The big win here is framing Skype as comparable to existing services, and a very low cost alternative. People are angry, scared, frustrated, and desperate over their communication bills. I don't have any teenagers at home and I spend about $60 on mobile, $80 for local and dsl; about $2200/year with long distance thrown in.
I'm sure the money will look very good come April's investor conference call, and will set a pattern for other regions.
I'd love to see Skype carve out discount programs for K-12 schools and teachers.
Written by Skype Journal on December 14th, 2006 with no comments.
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I take great pleasure in reading passionate pieces where the writer calls attention to faulty and widespread thinking. (I like to write such pieces myself but I give props to other thought leaders no prob.)
Writing on Valleywag, author and frequent conventional wisdom debunker Clay Shirky really has hit the mark with his column "A [...]
Written by Russell Shaw on December 14th, 2006 with no comments.
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