6. VoIP - Second Time's the Charm?

Another technology that seems to be making a second run at achieving critical mass is Voice over IP. It certainly will help that FCC Chairman Michael Powell indicated during his CTIA keynote armchair chat that he favored a "light regulatory touch" to VoIP regulation and that the (U.S.) government will take a "hands-off" approach.

Though VoIP has been gaining steam by being offered as an option by wired broadband service providers and VoIP-specific companies such as Vonage, it may also be a technology that helps cellular providers manage their transition to completely digitally-based networks.

One of the major issues in cellular high speed data networks will be balancing the mix of data and voice traffic. Right now, most spectrum goes to handling voice traffic, with data services getting a relatively small amount of bandwidth. As data volume grows, however, more spectrum will need to be given over to it and failure to successfully manage the mix could be a source of customer dissatisfaction.

Though technologies such as CDMA2000 1XEV-DV will let carriers adjust the voice / data mix on the fly, the way to the future has been foretold in wired telco networks, where the predominant traffic is already data. Doing VoIP conversion in future handsets will make things easier for cell network load management by turning a major "application" (voice) into just another stream of bits to be transported across the network. Although it's not happening yet, I expect VoIP will be coming in a handset generation or so.

One company aiming to be a player in VoIP for non-cellular phones is Denmark's RTX Telecom. RTX is an OEM / ODM that makes cordless phones for Panasonic, VTech and others. They see VoIP as the way to the future and want to bring VoIP to the consumer electronics market in a big way.

They were demoing the first product on their VoIP product roadmap - a Dual-Use cordless phone - at their booth. The phone is by no means an ideal VoIP solution since it requlres a USB connection to an Internet-connected computer for VoIP services (their demo used Skype's free service). But the product allows a user to choose a normal phone line or Internet-based VoIP service to make or receive calls. Note that RTX's roadmap includes other consumer VoIP products including a VoIP Analog phone adapter and ultimately its VoFi VoIP phone. All they need is a manufacturer willing to lead the charge...