Will VoIP carriers drop the ball on new TI tool?

My colleague Marguerite Reardon reports that today, Texas Instruments will announce software that will enable VoIP carriers to better manage devices sitting at customer's offices and homes.

This software will be called Piqua.

Update: Piqua has, in fact, been introduced today. 

Sounds like a diagnostic trouble-shooter. For example, if there is an echo on the call, Piqua might be able to pinpoint the problem. The software won't fix the problem, but will be able to alert a tech to it.

"In an IP service, like VIP, the intelligence is in the phone and not at the central office, like it is in the traditional phone network," TI's packet voice and business unit general manager William Simmelink tells Marguerite. "So it's important for technicians in a call center to be able to control the devices sitting at the customer site."

Sounds good, but if I am the VoIP subscriber, I would want assurances that the techs are watching. And that the techs are there, not hundreds of thousands of miles away, from where a series of electronic messages that may or may not reach the local foot soldiers are sent much too often. 

If VoIP service providers don't let Piqua do its job, I'll be  piqued.

And so will you.