Early this month PCCW in HK launched their Media Phone service called “Eye2″
This is a wireless Portable Media Player with content from PCCW’s IPTV service. It can also support voice and video call. Looks like this is a trend for fixed line telcos to use “IP Convergence” devices to generate additional revenue from fixed line subscribers. In USA similar services are already available:
Traditional fixed line telcos are facing tough competitions from mobile operators and VoIP service providers. By adding value to existing offerings ( in PCCW case the multimedia content ) they can avoid direct pricing competitions while generating additional revenue from existing subscribers.
It resonated well with me as this is one of the issues that I face when explaining GIPS technology to people when I first meet with them. “Q: What’s HD Voice?” A: HD voice is the clarity of voice you hear when the audio bandwidth, which ranges between 50 Hz-7 kHz using a sampling rate of 16 kHz provides clear, concise speech without jitter, delay and the snap crackle and pops that you get with regular phones…
Just like HD radio, HD voice requires more than a one sentence explanation and the best way to illustrate HD voice quality is to listen to it. Anyone who has used Skype, Googletalk, Nimbuzz or Yahoo! will know what I am talking about – great sound quality.
I’m stupefied that even today most of us still tolerate bad quality on our phones – akin to listening to an AM radio station. A gentle reminder here: AM broadcast technology was used at the start of the 1900’s! Even radio got FM, and now they have HD! What’s up with that?
While GIPS doesn’t make lager, if it did, it probably would be the best lager in the world. Fortunately, for service providers, application developers and enterprises we do make the best audio and video software for real-time communication… Cue the light refreshing video
Thankfully, there appears to be more recognition of the need for HD Voice and there will be more in-depth discussion of the subject next month when Jeff Pulver gathers industry heavyweights for the HD Communications summit in New York. We hope to see you there.
To date 2009’s global headlines are dominated by the state of the global economy. No one can predict what will happen this coming year but in slow economic periods all of us consumers are inclined to look for practical value. If the economy gets tougher, people will look at ways to reduce costs – dining out, phone bills, travel and luxury goods may be replaced with more cooking at home, increased use of VoIP, video conferencing, more people staying at home watching TV and bargain hunting.
Wainhouse Research, an independent market research firm that focuses on unified communications is showing that video conferencing grew in 2008 by nearly 17 percent. The Wainhouse opinion “If you ask us anyway, we think the industry will not escape the effects of the external economy, but it will suffer less than most.”
Additionally their annual survey of video conferencing shows that users indicate that “in the past year, both interest in and purchases of more advanced visual solutions has increased dramatically.”
While there are no definitive predictions in 2009, there are signs that video may play a key role in communications in 2009 both from a cost-saving and collaboration perspective.
For more signs of what may come in 2009, there is mass coverage of the consumer electronics show currently running in Las Vegas. Check it out.
