The future of VoIP

The morning session at The Future in Review didn't really shed much light on VoIP futures.  It started with an interview by host Mark Anderson with Vonage CEO Jeffrey Citron and Cisco CTO Charles Giancarlo, CTO. Citron talked about how expanding Vonage's global footprint and adding new features, such as video telephony and more advanced call routing. You can get far more out of the recently posted Engadget interview with Citron. Giancarlo expects that half of the U.S. will use VoIP by the end of the decade and new purchases of PBXs are of the IP variety, which he said are now as secure as secure as TDM environments. "VoIP will change over next 10 to 20 years how interact with other people," Giancarlo said. Predictably, voice will be the smallest part of communications over time, with bandwidth soaked up by video and always on services. The combination of Wi-Fi and VoIP and people--especially among teenagers and college students-- looking for micro-mobile solutions  on phones and PDAs that span a city will accelerate market adoption, Citron said. 

Vonage CEO Jeffrey Citron (left) and Cisco CTO Charles Giancarlo

Citron described Skype as an "interesting company that does a lot of fun stuff" and is mostly aimed at the market for calling cards. He said as international cell calling rates are driven downward, Skype will have to move more directly into Vonage's space as a more robust communications platform.  He said it would be difficult for Skype move to Vonage's space, but that seems to be a bit of wishful thinking...