Voicespan

There a lot of chat in the VoIP world at the moment about Nimbuzz, which is the latest in a lengthening line of mobile/cell VoIP-enablement software packages. Nimbuzz seems to be well thought-out, with an impressive range of gateways, including Skype. Will it succeed? Possibly, although it’s early in the hype curve at the moment and it could so easily go the way of the likes of Fring and others – i.e. be ‘flavour of the month’ for a while until superceeded by the next big thing.

But why are these startups not making it really big? After all, they address one of the biggest bugbears in mobile telephony, at least in the UK, namely the cost of making calls that aren’t included in the ‘inclusive’ part of the package. In particular, the cost of international calls can be eye-watering in the extreme.

My view is that two factors are at play here:

1. The mobile companies are eating just enough humble pie whenever public opinion of an aspect of their service reaches boiling point. Most recently, the huge cost of making (and receiving) calls whilst abroad has been highlighted. As a result, my mobile provider (Vodafone) is now offering a summer window during which calls made and received while abroad will be the same cost as in the UK. This will mollify the vocal minority of customers (i.e. the consumer market on their once-a-year holiday in the sun) whilst having minimal impact on the lucrative business travellers who ‘expense’ their phone bill anyway.
2. As in so many other cases, people in general are apathetic. The path of least resistance is the one with the deepest ruts! Of course there are a number of people who are prepared to jump through a few hoops to save money on their mobile calls, but for each one of those there are many who can’t be bothered, or are daunted by the need to install and configure some software on their phone.

Of the two factors, the second has potential to be reduced significantly by the software vendors. The easier it is to install, configure and use the software, the more likely people will do so. Voice quality (i.e. delay, echo and jitter) are always going to be a concern, particularly as the list of gateways grows, so efforts need to be expended in that area too, although it should be a manageable problem.

For the end user, choice over whether or not to use the mobile providers network is a good thing. After all, if they perceive Nimbuzz, Fring, etc. as a bigger threat over time, then more incentives will be offered to us end-users. Good times!

Therefore, I will have a look at Nimbuzz, just as I will have a look at it’s successor if Nimbuzz doesn’t succeed. Even if it is only to boost the download numbers.