Cutting Down Costs
People's loss of confidence in the economy will drive them to trim their budgets, and VoIP falls right into place here in saving on communications. The main reason why individuals and businesses switch to VoIP is its ability to make them communicate better for cheaper.
Communication is not luxury anymore, and it is unlikely that people will tend to communicate less during a recession. Households will look out for services that are tailored to their needs - this suggests that those VoIP providers that will be more innovative and flexible on VoIP service plans with regards to changing trends will be more successful. Of all the types of VoIP services around, the 'no-monthly bill' ones tend to be more interesting, in requiring users only to invest once-off on a device and make calls for free afterwards, without having to pay bills monthly. But there are more common ways through which people have been saving loads of money since the advent of VoIP. They are PC-based services, as we see below.
Softphones, Mobile Telephony and Web-Based Services
There will be more interest for softphones and PC-based VoIP services, which, under certain conditions, allow users to make local and international phone calls for free. When the calls are not free, they are way much cheaper than traditional PSTN calls. To use these services, users only need to download and install applications on their computers or communication devices and register.
This will extend to the mobile telephony market, where there are already many ways for users to bypass expensive traditional GSM networks and make free or cheap local and international calls using their mobile phones or smartphones. 3G and Wi-Fi networks lead the way to this. Wi-Fi seems to be the best way ahead, since it can be completely free, unlike other wireless networks. Users, specially those living in developed places, can find Wi-Fi hotspots in many places, like airports, cybercafes, campuses etc. Just being there connects their portable devices to the Internet.
For Businesses
The same paradigm applies for companies, where VoIP deployments are very often used as internal communication channels. This way, VoIP is used as a one-to-one replacement for traditional PSTN, resulting in an interesting return on investment by lowering administrative costs and internal communication costs.
SIP, an underlying VoIP element, adds more power to VoIP deployments in businesses, attaching intelligence to business processes and giving better control to companies over their communication mechanism. Unified Communications help in the way, merging different communication elements, thereby centralizing control and features. SIP trunking is also a great cost-cutter, since it eliminates the need for some expensive hardware like PSTN gateways and interfaces. It interacts directly with a company's IP PBX.
However, for companies to be able to make the most of VoIP, they will need to have incurred a series of costs in the first place, ranging from the purchase and installation of necessary hardware and software, to their day-to-day maintenance. Companies that have not yet done this first investment are unlikely to do so during an economic slowdown. This is where innovative services and devices come into play. We have recently seen the design of services that offer basic features for businesses for a minimum cost per month. Examples are the business plans of Jajah, Skype and Phonegnome. These services host the necessary hardware and logic, relieving the companies from having to buy them. Again, the concept of innovative tailoring according to needs comes back. We have also seen the emergence of a new type of full-fledged in-house (as compared to hosted, just described) VoIP systems embedded into a single box, making it very cheap to acquire and maintain. An example is Adtran Netvanta.
Internationally
VoIP has blurred the lines between nations worldwide. Economic crisis in the US will mean increase in interest in American VoIP services from foreign markets, specially when it comes to online services like PC-based telephony. The devaluation of the US dollar will increase the purchasing power of foreign users with respect to American products and services. While this can be somewhat detrimental to people living on American soil, it will be beneficial for the industry as a whole, which will undergo a geographical shift, or 'exodus'.
But Still There Are Threats
Yes, the VoIP industry should look out for ambush. First, there is the perspective of VoIP companies closing down, due to economic complications. Credit from banks are vital for some companies, and failure in this might be detrimental for the industry. Then, the only lifebuoy would be the expected soaring sales that should result from more interest from the public, for reasons described above.
And then there are the dependencies. VoIP depends heavily on the Internet. So, one sine qua non condition for VoIP to flourish is the good health of the Internet, and business thereon. What happens to providers of ADSL and other types of data bandwidth will also be a decisive factor for the fate of VoIP. Same applies to 3G networks and Wi-Fi hotspots. If we extrapolate the crisis to near the extreme, people will also cut down on electricity, on which VoIP depends. Here, traditional PSTN has an advantage in that it consumes much less power.
But on the whole, if players in the VoIP industry know how to act proactively, are innovative and ensure some control over certain dire parameters, the industry can look at a promising future.
