Alec Saunders SquawkBox

The latest instalment of Jon Arnold’s continuing Canadian IP Thought Leaders podcast series is up.  It’s an interview with Howard and I on our experience at DEMO.  I have to commend Jon.  On a weekly basis he lines up a new interview, schedules it, records it and posts it.  He gets good interviewees too - I’ve been on three times now ;)

Jeff Pulver announced a very cool spin-out from the FWD family today, IPeerX.  IPeerX is a peering exchange with 139 carriers all participating.  The services they offer include:

• PSTN By-Pass
  • Complete IP to IP calls without transiting the legacy PSTN and paying competitors for use of their network
• Frictionless Peering
  • Peer with other VoIP providers with security and without extensive setup, expensive hardware, or fixed facilities
• Directory Listings
  • Get your E.164 numbers listed on major Directory Assistance Listing Databases Worldwide through our exclusive agreement with one of the world’s largest listing agencies
• Non-SIP & Non-Standard SIP Protocol Conversions
  • Organizations that have varying VoIP protocols can take full advantage of IPeerX Interconnection
• Constant Network Monitoring
  • IPeerX continuously monitors all possible routes for connectivity and call quality. Use these reports to improve your service and manage your network.
• Rules Based Routing
  • Set thresholds for price and quality and IPeerX will complete only those calls which meet your criteria
• Clearing and Settlements
  • Set prices on services (e.g. PSTN Termination, multi-media calls, translation, etc) and be paid for them

Many have been predicting that this will be a big year for peering.  When initiatives like IPeerX come along, it’s easy to become a believer.

About a month ago I was forced to stop using my favorite softphone, Gizmo Project, for most of my calling.  It had a nasty bug in it which caused it to consume close to 100% of my CPU resources whenever a network change occurred –> dropped by a flaky wifi signal, or setup / teardown a VPN connection, for instance.  This morning, I got the latest Gizmo update, and the problem is solved!  Congrats to Jason Droege and his team at SipPhone.

And congrats are also in order to Michael Robertson.  SipPhone just landed $6,000,000 in investment, and added Ed Sim of DawnTreader investments to their board.  Way to go! 

Ed explains on his blog that they invested because of their belief in open standards, the SipPhone frictionless business model, and Michael and Jason’s management.  Om Malik further adds that Michael Robertson told him the company is expanding it’s focus to include WiFi and Mobile.  And Andy Abramson adds some more details of how that will work, based on his experience working with Bridgeport. 

Rich Tehrani and Tom Keating have both published articles about getting paid to talk in the last couple of days.  Rich ridicules the idea as a throwback to the dot com days.  Tom reports on a company called CashBackVoices offering to pay you a percentage of all you talk, and all that your friends talk, and…

CashBackVoices is a pyramid scheme (sorry, multi-level marketing company) in the tradition of the grandest scams in the industry.  All calls must be 30 minutes to qualify.  You pay competitive rates for the calls you make. You enroll by paying a 1.75 euro one time fee, and then buy credits for your phone usage.  The cashback scheme looks like this:

• First level (people you call directly): 10% 
• Second level (people your directs call): 1%
• Third level: 2%
• Fourth level: 3%
• Fifth level: 4%
• Sixth level: 5%
• Seventh level: 6%
• Eight level: 7%
• Nineth level: 8%
• Tenth level: 9%

This scam is the same as the "bong tone" scams on prepaid phone cards.  Most people will never see a cent from this scheme.  That’s because most telephone calls are less than 10 minutes long. Most people will pay the sign up fee, buy some credit, discover that the service is really no cheaper than any other prepaid long distance service and drop it. And CashBackVoices will keep the unused balance and the 1.75 euro sign up fee… technically known as "breakage" in the prepaid phone card industry.

CashBackVoices couldn’t really afford to make the payout either.  Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that you make 2 30 minute calls in a month, and everyone in your downline does the same.  Whipping out my handy copy of Excel reveals that for my $1.30 in phone calls made, CashBackVoices would owe me $106.32.  There’s a sucker born every minute, isn’t there?

I’m with Rich.  Value is going to be created by innovative new uses for VoIP.