Facebook has made no secret of its desire to
become asmart smart voip provider.
It's slowly introducing the functionality into its applications one by one in a
staged manner probably in order to get users used to the idea of using Facebook
to talk to each other. There is no doubt in anyone's mind that it has the
potential to become the single largest smart
voip service in existence today. While companies like Skype have a
lot of brand name recognition, the sheer scope and power of Facebook's network
will render it a potent threat to any incumbent Smart voip player.
Also consider that Facebook's recent
initiative to take over your home screen on Android phones will make this
process easier and will allow people to directly initiate calls without having
to specifically open up a Facebook app. Telecom companies might not appreciate
this wholesale usurpation of precious screen real estate, but there is little
that they can do about it. After all, Facebook merely has to release a launcher
app to go on the Google Play store and anyone can download it and install it
overriding carrier customizations.
But while a Facebook connected smart voip world will be
a boost for Internet enabled voice services, it may not be beneficial for the
entire ecosystem as a whole. This is because it will create merely another
locked in silo that users cannot get out of. In essence, Facebook is looking to
create its own mini telephone network that you have to subscribe to in order to
reach everyone else.
And this is the constant problem facing smart voip today. As new
and innovative companies offer their own voice-enabled services, they have no
intentions of sharing their users with the rest of the world via a standardized
addressing protocol. Just think how crippled email would be if Gmail users
could only send and receive messages from other Gmail users and Yahoo Mail
customers hadto do the same. It is the interconnectivity and standardization
between the services that gives e-mail its power.
As of now, only SIP Smart voip systems are
standardized enough to allow interconnectivity between service providers. The
addressing system is much like e-mail with the username and the domain. This is
the mode that businesses prefer to use. While Skype and Facebook are retail
solutions, businesses also need to integrate with the traditional PSTN phone
system and for this, SIP is an ideal solution.
One can only hope to that down the line tech
companies will do the right thing and open up their networks for free P2P
intercommunication. Without that, we will have lock-in and a stilted smart voip ecosystem.
