It’s Deja VoIP All Over Again! (part 1)
Last May, at Ottawa’s BarCamp1, I spoke to Rich Loen, co-founder of InGenius about the re-emergence of telephony and how it seemed like VoIP startups were reinventing what we once thought were just ‘cool’ phone features. A lot of those features like the interactive services envisioned for the Vista 350 were dismal failures partly because of the growth of web-based commerce in the mid 90s. Many of the telecom-related innovations of the 90s were amazing technological feats yet were commercial flops or never saw daylight outside the lab walls. You might remember ‘follow-me’ presence functionality, the web-based voice button, internet call waiting, first generation integrated messaging. Or, you might not.
Looking back, it becomes clear that great technology does not ensure great products. Development and commercialization are two very distinct sciences. It makes intuitive sense that a successful high-tech product will have good technology. That does not always hold true. Sometimes products succeed despite poor technology. Sometimes products fail despite great technology. In the world of VoIP, there are many PSTN horror stories that should serve as valuable lessons for your Voice 2.0 product roadmap!
At the upcoming BarCamp Ottawa (December 2), I’ll be talking about three telecom products that taught me a few things. In part 1 of It’s Deja VoIP All Over Again! I’ll look at Proximity, Nortel’s fixed wireless telephone intended for third world rural villages. I was the design prime… so it’s partly my fault!
Back in 1995, there were still a lot of people on this small planet without telephone service. Traditional copper wire was too attractive for copper thieves so that wasn’t an option. 2G cell towers were too expensive and didn’t provide enough coverage for low-density rural villages. The technology solution was an old one! Microwave. Otherwise known as Point to multi-point. Or Fixed Wireless Access (FWA). The ‘microwave’ descriptor wasn’t popular in focus groups though. Consumers did not want to cook a chicken on their phone. The benefit of FWA was range 10-15 km. Also, it was reasonably cheap to deploy and configure. The business model was simple. One important catch it required that the terminals remained fixed and stayed put!!! To the network manager, the difference between wireless and mobility is pretty clear. To a rural shopkeeper in rural Mexico, Colombia, or Vietnam; it’s a synonym. It became such an issue that FWA telcos were telling their subscribers that the phone would explode if they moved it out of their house! For those not concerned with exploding phones, their main complaint, why does the phone have to be so heavy, it’s really hard to carry around (it weighed about 15 pounds)? In Asian villages, some hired servants just to carry their ‘mobile’ phone around!
Sort of makes you wonder about those big-footprint VoIP clients!
Come hear more funny FWA stories at BarCamp! (Well they’re funny now!)
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