Infonetics Research cites that services and applications are what will drive price. In all the interviews I’ve been giving to the media the last few weeks about VoIP I always tell them the price is not what it is about. It’s the applications and servcies. Seems the report back up that line of thinking.
VoIP growth will also come from wireless players entering the game with converged devices that let you work on WiFi and cellular networks. One example of this is Primus entering this converged space. While some of my friends at Qualcomm think WiFi phone is a joke, the carriers who look at VoIP, blended with WiFi and GSM or CDMA, like a T-Mobile can work with a DSL company like Speakeasy, already a solid reseller of Covad, and soon to roll out Level3’s VoIP package, to be an all in one player, or they can work with companies like Cox, which in some markets where they already have digital cable, they don’t plan to jump into VoIP so fast. I know this as fact as one of the local execs here in San Diego told me as much today on a call. Seems the build out has to pay back, before the cheaper, and more profitable VoIP will be deployed. By working with a T-Mobile, Cox and other carriers who already have Cable Telephony, but not all the customer they want, may have a new flavor with an established customer base.
Of course T-Mobile, Virgin Mobile or Nextel can always just sell wireline service where the customer brings their own access too.