The Celebrated Mr Abramson Is Right Yet Again; It’s Not About Cheap..It’s About Being Better

Normally I try not to post simple opinions on the statements of others. I’m no guru. There are others more qualified to comment than I. And I do find the blogosphere to be a lot like an old plate reverb from my past days in recording studios. One drum shot into the box and the sound goes on for days. So much commentary on someones commentary. But I’ll set that aside for now.

Andy Abramson was recently highlighted by some major press as being a mighty fine read, and correct in much of his opinion. I always find his posts interesting, with a well balanced perspective on all things telecom. Recently he posted a brief piece highlighting the fact that there’s much work to be done in VOIP beyond cheap calls. I couldn’t agree more.

In fact, I’m the poster child for that assertion as applied to the SOHO environment. I probably don’t save much on my telecom use overall. That said, I do more, it’s more convenient…and I have greater flexibility thanks to my VOIP approach.

Here are some of the highlights:

• We probably have more phones around out place than most people with similar sized homes.
• We certainly have a handful of numbers (DIDs) some dedicated to specific functions.
• We make use of FWD, Gizmo, Skype, etc.
• We make use of SIP URIs where possible, although that remains limited at present.
• Our front door bell will shortly ring the home phones with a unique ring pattern.
• We have a GSM gateway as a fallback in case our DSL & cable modem go out, or we’re hit by a hurricane.
• We have centrally provisioned caller directories on all our desk phones (Polycom & Aastra)
• We wish we could also provision the directory in the otherwise wonderful snom m3 cordless phones
• We gave up land lines over three years ago
• We still have 911 service
• We pay per minute for every call coming & going that touches the PSTN, but that’s ok
• I’ll soon have a click to call button on my blog (hopefully, if I can find the time)

This may seem all very random, but what I’m trying to illustrate is that I’m not afraid to spend money. Not at all. But I want good value for my investment. Below some practical limit I’m not at all interested in how low someone’s per minute calling to the UK might be, even though I call the UK a lot.

Cheap or even free calls are just not interesting. It’s new applications and enhanced productivity that drives me onward. And I don’t see genuinely interesting developments as being all that common.