When we look back about 3-4 years back, VOIP was a baby then and we never thought it would be a part of our daily lives today. We use VOIP in some way or the other, perhaps not all but most of us.
We did succeed in making this phoney world FREE to an extent. Unfortunately we still have those old fashioned junky PSTN lines charging us for terminating calls on normal landlines/mobiles. What are they charging us for are those uber junky telephones lines build some years back. I still dont know a way to get rid of those PSTN lines and make all voice communication FREE. Prolly a more deeper penetration for VOIP around the world might help creating a VOIP world. Looking at today's numbers, it still is a distant dream. Perhaps by 2020, we might have a FREE VOIP world who knows?
Some of today's companies are offering Ad-based model, like Jajah in Europe & another VOIP company, Globe7 offering a you free credits by viewing videos. I have tested both. I found Jajah a million times better than most of its counterparts like Globe7. Globe7 becomes annoying after some time, its design and overall look is so loud. It distracts users after a short time. For watching one video for about 2 minutes, i was paid some 0.05 cents at this rate, i might have to spend like 200 minutes to get a $5 into my account to make one international call for about 15-20 minutes. Well, do you think people would actually spend that much time on there for making a 15 minute call, instead they would use Jajah or Voipcheap
Voipcheap is currently offering FREE calls to landlines to more than 40 countries and in some countries even mobile. Really speaking its a great idea to promote their services and some customers will buy for paid services which will cover the cost for the FREE calls. I dont know how this model will work in the long run, will the companies will be able to provider free calls? Perhaps not if PSTN lines still exist which will never let the provider offer you a FREE calls since he will be paying for it. To give you an example, let look at how the current system works.
Say you are based in USA and want to call India Landline or Mobile, You are using Jajah to make a call. You want to call a landline number in mumbai. Say its +91-22-2123456.
You initiate a call from Jajah. Jajah first calls you and then start dialing out to the service provider in India, which is in this case MTNL. Once jajah tries to terminate your calls at MTNL, MTNL asks for a connect charge. This is where the FREE world ends. Same is the case for mobiles.
Now Companies can or might do in future?
Model 1: Companies would sit together and figure out a way to terminate FREE calls on landlines & mobiles. A distant dream but can be achieved if both parties include the cost as a part of their other services. To offer this model, companies might need to charge customers extra on services such as caller Id, international call receiving service charge etc.
Sincerely, this model might not work with most of the service providers since it requires a lot of honesty and dedication, which most of the companies don't have or don't even want to.
Model2: A more robust and workable model to make all worldwide calls FREE. All service providers will charge you a fix charge for making and receiving calls including a VOIP line. You would get a certain FREE calls for that fixed charge and over above that you would be charged. The charges will not be different for calling australia or singapore but they would be one charge rate across the world.
Model 3: All PSTN companies would offer VOIP services along with normal traditional phone lines. They would offer services such as Call PSTN and route to VOIP service. So if you call a normal landline PSTN line, the call will terminate on VOIP and you wont be charged for it. To have this service, you will need to have a PSTN and VOIP line from the same service provider. There will some fixed charge for the VOIP line.
Why i am saying that because companies will be reluctant to replace their PSTN lines with VOIP, but they would be ok with providing two services.
Model4 : The dream model. All companies can offer VOIP services at a fixed charge but you can call anyone anytime anywhere in the world and talk unlimited. Does that sound like a fairy tell VOIP service. LOL..you bet.
That was my take on VOIP future, if you have any comments or suggestion, please drop by.
Merry Christmas & Happy new year till then.
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