VoIP
25 November 2007
I am a bit behind the times. While everyone else has been using Skype for years, I signed up for Skype only recently and bought a headset yesterday so that I could actually use it. And what a great thing it is. I don't use the phone that often, and any calls that I do make tend to be overseas ones. Skype's prepay model is ideal for me.
When naked DSL gets introduced in New Zealand in a few months, services such as Skype will really take off. I doubt that I will ever sign up for a Telecom account, and I suspect that many geeks who are currently with Telecom will be cancelling their accounts.
It will be interesting to see how Telecom will react to this. PSTN is an expensive way of making calls. Telecom has already advised that it will not be introducing naked DSL. It will be interesting to see if it comes up with any VoIP services to compete with the Naked DSL/VoIP services that its competitors will introduce.
Telecom's competition is also coming from other areas. Vodafone has recently introduced its Vodafone At Home service while Woosh has been around for a while. Fortunately for Telecom, both services have received mixed reviews. They should, however, be making a small but noticeable dent in Telecom's revenue streams which will hopefuly be cause for concern.