[Asterisk-biz] VoIP Future and Asterisk -- For Teliax, LiveVOIP, NuFone, VoipJet, BroadVoice and all other IXPs

[Jeff Heath]

snip

> And if you think the industry is
> too competitive now, just wait until Netscape, er, I mean Google,
> launches their Communicator product in early 2007, and Microsoft and
> Yahoo start offering similar services.
> 
I'll plead ignorance on this, but have these guys announced plans to get
into providing VoIP?  

I guess it wouldn't be that hard for them to do, and heaven knows they
have the resources, but it's not obvious to me why they would want to. 
Residential VoIP seem to be a pretty low profit margin business compared
to theirs and with cable companies and ILECs offering bundled voice,
video, and data it would seem to me that their only means of competing
would be on price which would only further drive down their profit
margin.  Not to mention that they have loads of cash for lawyers to go
after if they screw up a 911 call.  Doesn't seem to me like the exposure
would be worth it.  

Seems to me that the companies that are really going to win are the ones
that control the high speed access to the customer.  But maybe there is
something I'm missing.  What is Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo's
motivation for entering the VoIP market?

Jeff Heath