Whenever there's compelling, avant garde technology on the scene, there's some guy out there saying it sucks. In this case, the technology is VoIP and the guy saying it sucks (via his website voipsucks.com), is named Scott. Anyway, he's looking for helping getting his web site up and running so give him a shout if you agree that VoIP sucks.
Even VoIP Sucks to Some People
Reader Comments
(Page 1)2. I still remember how VoIP was, I used to say:
Pleas write an email...it costs the same, but I will be able to understand..
25 years ago IBM offered its computers initially with MSDOS and later with Windows.
It made the fortune of IBM and Bill Gates.
After 25 years we begin to think it was not a great idea.
VoIP is supposed to be the flag of freedom against all the Monopolies of this world, the Telcos' Monopoly.
But what is happening?
A new Monopoly is slowly growing in the place of the old one.
Cheaper, but even worse than its predecessor.
1) Proprietary codecs that need proprietary hardware.
2) Close Networks, the in and out is in the end of the Provider. I wouldn't call this a "free world"
3) The business model is nothing else that the old business model of the old Telecoms.
Cheaper yes, but just because IT IS CHEAPER.
The infrastructures and the hardware are paid by the customer.
He needs a broadband connection, he needs a computer and if he buys an IP phone he doesn't even need the softphone.
The only thing the provider does is addressing the call in the IP to IP and leasing the last mile in the case of the termination.
What does it offer which is so new?
The Network already exists, it is called "Internet", the last mile was built by the Telecoms.
Why doesn't anybody see the big opportunity of VoIP?
Millions of small providers, offering the service of their gatkeepers, with standard codecs and open to all the other gatekeepers..In this case VoIP WOULD REALLY BE FREE.
VoIP is the talking part of the Internet, just that.
We do not need new Netwoks in the Network...
It is like building new roads in the existing ones...for charging new tolls...
It is not VoIP that sucks, it is the way you use it..
Patrizia
3. Hate to break the news to you guys, but VoIP does suck, at least what I have used.
We have a Toshiba phone system at my work. We added a special card to the system, that allows special Toshiba IP phones to be connected to it. So, our office is in San Francisco, we have a worker in Boston. The guy in Boston plug his phone into his 6Mbps/786Kbps DSL line from Speakeasy, and he is now connected to the office. We can dial his 3 digital extension and his Toshiba VoIP phone Rings, he can dial his extensions here, just like he was in the office, check voicemail, just like he was in the office.
The concept is terrific, but when it is used, it stinks. On the phone with a client? Don't check your email at the same time, because your phone call will start dropping out, and you will sound either like you are underwater, or like you are on a cell phone going through a tunnel. This sometimes happens with no other network traffic going on. Oh, and when you are IN the office, with one of these phones, connected to the same LAN as the phone system, the quality of the call, for both internal and external calls is also pretty poor.
I am unsure what the big deal about VoIP is. All I can tell is that people are willing (or fooled into) accepting a high level of mediocirty, for the promise of saving money. And saving money was never our goal, having remote users be connected to our office as seamlessly as possible was the goal. Well it is seamless, seamlessly shoddy.
When we complained to our phone vendor that the quality sucked, their response was "Well we don't control the internet". Thanks, you just flushed a customer of almost 10 years down the toliet.
If you are a business, and the quality of your phone calls matters at all to you, stay as FAR away from VoIP and the snake oil saleman who are pushing it. It might work good 10 years from now, but at the moment, it is mediocre at best.
So yes, VoIP really does suck.
Posted at 4:36AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Chris
1. well you should know that not everyone has broadband and what i hate is that modern technology is always using the biggest of x for y
for exemple i remeber being able to use voip on my dial up which never went higgher then 3-4kbs dl and same for upload. I cant remeber how good the voice was bu i can rmeber it worke. Now it's really hard to get it to work with my connection which is an unstable 10-40k uploads and 30-100k download.
I used vonage, stanaphone and skype the all handle the incoming voice due to my high dl speed but not my outgoing sound due to my low upload speed. Maybe i could be using some other service that would compansate but should'nt all those services i stated above be targetting all types of connections to really get all types of user ?
and i'll also post this up onmy blog
Posted at 4:36AM on Dec 19th 2005 by sebastien