Microsoft's VOIP plans and industry outlook

VOIP has become a buzz word of telecommunication industry and people are betting big on it. Whether or not they will succeed, only time will tell the story but one thing is for sure, there is more liquidity in this market than ever before. you name the big wigs, you name the venture capitalist everyone trying to cash on this mammoth telecom power which very possible going to rule the way we will communicate in future. Its perhaps the time for the oldies (PSTN providers) to wake-up and put together a plan to counter attack or adapt to the change.

The latest entrant to join the party is Microsoft. Microsoft already had a MSN messenger software enabling pc to pc communication , however Microsoft largely failed in penetrating that market or even promote the product as a voice messenger. Yahoo outshine them by a huge percent and Microsoft never bothered to even answer. However, they have some big plans for the Microsoft office communicator. I myself use this tool in my office to connect/talk to my office colleagues separated by distance literally by timezones and miles miles away. Its so easy and cool to have a quick chat with a guy sitting in india and next minute have a conference with a guy in taiwan office. I love every bit of it. Office communicator also integrates with Outlook so you know when the guy is busy, he is away for meeting or he is simply enjoying holidays.

Now to add to these already bulky feature list, Microsoft is going to add VOIP technology to make it one of the best product for inter office communication and a good target market.

According to Microsoft, "Office Communications Server 2007 allows companies to integrate voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) technology into existing telephony infrastructure, eliminating the need for expensive network overhauls and also extending the useful life of existing investments. The new voice server will also allow workers to instantly launch a phone call from 2007 Microsoft Office applications, such as Office Word 2007, Office Outlook^® 2007 or Office Communicator, by simply clicking on a colleague’s name to determine his or her availability and initiate a person-to-person or multiparty call."

I guess this was just a start for the big M, there is more to come. but you will always know one thing, with Microsoft nothing is FREE and by far not even Cheap.