Small businesses should hold back from investing in Voice over Internet Protocol technology for at least another two years because it is not ready as a service and is unlikely to be for another 24 months – if not longer.
Brendan Moran, chief executive officer of independent telecoms consultancy MinuteBuyer, said it would make more sense for companies to run out the life of their existing phone system and put off any decision to replace it with a VoIP alternative.
“The VoIP which is being promoted is equipment as opposed to a service. It’s just fancy VoIP-enabled equipment that runs on regular telecom lines or people talking Skype up a storm. If VoIP was ready as a service, BT, Colt, Verizon and Eircom would be selling it.”
Pricing on VoIP equipment was depreciating rapidly, Moran claimed. VoIP-enabled handsets had fallen from €500 to €250 and it was possible they could be down to €50 by the time VoIP was properly delivered.
There was no business-quality VoIP solution available in Ireland and there wouldn’t be until local loops were unbundled at telephone exchanges across the country to give people better and faster Internet access, he added.
But Moran was confident VoIP would be delivered. “It’s when rather than if and in 24 months we’ll be on the edge of it.”
He also questioned the benefits of VoIP for small companies. “I think they will have to work together and form commercial communities with people they do business with, buy from or sell to. It’s hard to see the benefit unless a small business joins a community of peers to communicate with.”
Large, multi-branch businesses like AIB or Tesco would find a benefit in VoIP almost immediately, but even small businesses with two or three branches might find it harder to justify.
“You’d be amazed at how little you talk to each other. We have a client, a supermarket, that spends less than €2 a month talking to its headquarters.”
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