Michael Desmond, a long time technology reporter and author spent over two hours with me by phone last month talking about VoIP. His story, in the September issue of PC World Magazine is now available for reading.
Desmond did a very credible job in researching the story, and asked lots of very good questions, much of which I answered well enough to be quoted. He also used a lot of our background discussion as a launching pad for the four page story. That’s the way reporters are supposed to work. Find a subject matter expert, get enough material that enables them to dig deeper, assemble the facts and then report on them.
Desmond gets high marks in my book for his factual account. One issue he had with AT&T CallVantage, installation, is not something I experienced. But I’m also beginning to realize that the problems some have are related more to cable and dsl modems, firmware, versions and so forth, than between the carrier and the user.
For example, I have been trying out various carriers using a combination of telephone adapters, softphones and a WiFi handset. Each carrier has had its own share of nuances with different wireless routers. It seems the idea of standards and how they are applied is the root of the issues. Some chipsets just don’t seem to do things the way others do. For example, I could not get the Zyxel Prestige 2000 phone to work with my Microsoft 802.11 b/g wireless gateway, but it works with the Microsoft 802.11b wireless gateway, the SMC 802.11b and my new Linksys Router 802.11 b/g and Linksys Access Point also 802.11 b/g. It does not work with the Netgear Travel Router, so I suspect that something in the blending of 802.11 b/g is the culprit.
When I plug in the Vonage ATA behind the router after the AT&T Call Vantage is in line it works fine, as does the Zyxel WiFi phone using the Vonage Softphone settings. When I try to use the Zyxel with Voice Pulse it doesn’t work. If I use the Packet 8 TA the same way as Vonage, it seems to introduce some confusion into the network, yet the Videophone works fine. Voice Pulse functions fine like Vonage.
Confused yet? I am . It’s all because standards aren’t really in place and as revisions come out the version the carrier tested with is not always the one the end user has in their network. This is the biggest issue I see in deploying VoIP, and I have yet to get into the cable modems that people buy, versus the ones supplied (i.e. rented to you) by the cable companies, that always have their firmware updated to the latest DOCSIS specs.
Hence there is clearly a need for combined Cable modem, wireless router with built in addressable VoIP/SIP chips.