VOIP Uptake By Trixbox Users Rising

Kerry Garrison of Fonality appeared on The Voip Users Conference Friday December 21 to address the recent fervor over the matter of Trixbox implementing a script to automatically send system details back to Fonality. Kerry did a good job in front of a tough crowd. As a company they have admitted their error and appear to be redirecting themselves to a more appropriate approach. “Mea culpa’s” are hard, but they appear to be doing the right thing in this case. You can listen to the MP3 recording of the call to get the details.

Presuming that the opt-in version of the program is launched there is no doubt that the information that they could gather from their user base could be very interesting. They will be able to tell what sort of phones are being deployed, what version of each app is being used, what sort of connectivity is deployed, etc. Very interesting stuff.

In particular Kerry was able to say that in 2007 around 40% of their users are leveraging VOIP providers for core services. And further, this is double the uptake from the previous year. That is, people are using IP-based DIDs and termination services instead of, or addition to, traditional TDM (T-1, E-1) or analog lines (FXOs.) So it appears that confidence in VOIP service providers is increasing.

This certainly echos my own experience. I have not had a traditional land line in over two years. I’ve used a number of ITSPs, some good and some not-so-good. But I also find that they are steadily improving. To a degree this flies in the face of the spectacular and much publicized collapse of Sun Rocket earlier this year, as well as a number of others.

The past few months there’s been an increasing amount of FUD circulating about VOIP service providers. Vonage, Sun Rocket et al have impacted public perception of the space. This information reveals that there is good news as well, it’s just not as well known.