If you're examining your VoIP options, you owe it to yourself to look at this offering from a veteran modem maker, aimed at ISPs of all sizes.
by
Alex Goldman
ISP-Planet Managing Editor
[July 12, 2004]
Twenty years ago, Boston, Mass.-based
Zoom Telephonics was not known as the best modem maker in the business. Since then, the company has improved its own product line and managed to acquire two of the biggest names in modems: Hayes, founded by and named after the inventor of the modem, and Global Village, whose Macintosh modems were among the best.
Now that the company is launching a VoIP service, the less recognized Global Village brand seems idea for VoIP. "It's a neat name for a VoIP service," says Dean Panagopoulos, vice president of Zoom's network products group.
The service formally launches today, Monday July 12th, 2004, available worldwide, but it's been in the works for a long time. "We started working on the R&D over a year ago," says Panagopoulos.
The early conclusion of this modem maker was that hardware alone would not be enough. "We concluded we could provide a better end user experience by controlling both the hardware and the service. We would be able to deliver greater ease of use with a seamless service."
That's not to say that the hardware company has built a global CLEC. Instead, it's partnering with various companies around the world to deliver service, except in those nations where VoIP is illegal. "If it's illegal for us to sell the product, we won't sell it," Panagopoulos explains.
In most nations, however, VoIP law is nascent. "We're looking at VoIP regulation, watching it, trying to understand what's going on. We hope government will take a mostly hands off attitude, but we will do what we have to do to comply," says Panagopoulos.
Zoom's research process assumed that the product had to be SIP compliant, but could still be innovative. Start with an integrated product (a feature of ever more DSL modems). The company's first product is an integrated DSL modem, router, and VoIP adapter. In August, the company plans to add an Ethernet-only VoIP product, which we assume is directed at the cable Internet industry, but which we suspect could be very popular with the WISPs.
"Just having an integrated product makes setup and ease of use easier," says Panagopoulos. A special feature is that users of the product do not need to abandon their PSTN service. Dial a regular call, and it goes out through the ILEC. Dial # before the number, and the call goes over the VoIP network.
The product has to be simple, because Zoom does not intend to sell its own VoIP service to everyone who buys it. "We're happy to just sell the hardware," says Panagopoulos. "We decided to offer the VoIP service, but we didn't want the hardware locked into our service."
The VoIP infrastructure will start small (but sufficient) and grow according to demand. Initially, the company will have several SIP servers in the U.S. and one in the UK. All PSTN-related voice will go through partner companies. "Everything we're doing is in the IP space," says Panagopoulos. "We have our own SIP servers, voice mail servers, and media gateway, and we're handing off IP to the providers we're working with for the PSTN connection."
Zoom's Global Village brand VoIP service has some unusual features, such as five way calling instead of three way calling, but it's the pricing that will be most interesting to consumers. It's all about encouraging people to try the service.
All IP to IP calls, including to callers using other services, are free. The service is also sold without a commitment (apparently, Zoom is asserting that a monthly contract is one month too long to be tied to one service). U.S. and most international rates are 2.9 cents per minute, but, thanks to the SIP server in the UK, calls to London are only 1.9 cents per minute.
Users can, if they wish, purchase a $27.95 per month unlimited plan, but that's a lot of minutes at 2.9 cents (about 964 minutes, to be exact), so most users will be better off paying per minute. Nevertheless, there is demand for a monthly flat rate, perhaps because phone customers are accustomed to the hidden charges on their ILEC service.
Even the five way calling feature is designed for casual users. Panagopoulos sees it as good for families: a kid can get on the phone, and talk with up to five friends. "It's more like a chat room than a conference call," he says. And, if everybody's on IP-based phones, the call is free. "If everyone in the neighborhood has this, they can chat online forever for free," he notes.
Pricing and availability
The VoIP product launches today.
For ISPs, Zoom offers a commission-based contract, starting at about 10 percent and increasing with call volume. Panagopoulos expects larger ISPs to want to roll their own VoIP, particularly those that are CLECs, but he expects that businesses rolling their own service will look at Zoom's equipment. That's because, in addition to offering innovative features, the box will retail at just $99, which is barely more than the price of a modem for a unit that includes the VoIP adapter, the USB jack, and the four port router.
Modem Maker Launches VoIP Service
