Subject: [NEXTEL-1] SIPphones-

From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 07 Aug 2003 16:47:13 -0400

Posted by simoniker on Thursday August
07, @05:43AM
from the is-it-hot-or-not? dept.
JimCricket writes "After almost a year of
preparation, the person behind MP3.com
and Lindows has unveiled his latest
venture: SIPphone. According to a CNET
article, the new company sells VoIP-based
telephones. I wonder what kind of latency
you get with these devices." Interestingly,
the CNET article reveals the telephones "...can only call other
phones that use the same technology."

==============================================================

Lindows chief hears Net phones calling
By John Borland
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
August 6, 2003, 1:02 PM PT
http://news.com.com/2100-1037-5060748.html

MP3.com and Lindows founder Michael Robertson is once again launching a new
start-up aimed at shaking up the old technological order, focusing this time on
providing free Internet-based phone service.

Robertson's new self-funded venture, called SIPphone, was unveiled Wednesday
morning after nearly a year of preparation. SIP stands for "Session Initiation
Protocol," a technology that lies at the heart of the fast-growing Internet voice
business.  The new company is selling phones that allow customers to make
Internet-based calls for free, anywhere in the world--but there's a catch. They
can only call other phones that use the same technology, leaving most of the
world's regular telephones out of reach.  Still, Robertson believes that over
time, the technology can provide serious competition for traditional telephone
companies."I think that there's a real parallel here to MP3," Robertson said.
"That was about the digitization of music, while this is about digitization of
voice calls. The same reverberations that went through the music industry are
going to go through the telecom industry."Robertson's venture is one of a new wave
of companies that hope to capitalize on the spread of broadband Internet
connections and maturing digital voice technologies, to provide consumer Net voice
plans that compete with traditional phone service.

The call of VoIP

Internet calling, also called voice over Internet Protocol, or "VoIP," has hovered
at the fringes of the Internet business for nearly a decade. Backers have long
called it a potentially significant threat to the established telecommunication
industry. But until recently, quality of service hadn't reached the point where it
could provide a satisfactory replacement for ordinary calling.
Led by companies such as Cisco Systems and Nortel Networks, the technology is now
beginning to filter into large corporations. Standards such as SIP, which governs
the initiation and routing of Internet calls, have improved service dramatically
and have helped companies crack those markets.

The technology is also being built more deeply into PCs, as companies begin to add
more advanced voice services into applications such as instant messaging.
Microsoft's decision to add SIP support into the latest versions of its Windows XP
operating system has made it much easier to perform Net calls by using a basic
PC--though customers still must sign up for another company's services.  Where
consumer-focused companies like Vonage and Packet8 offer flat-rate, unlimited
calling that competes directly with ordinary phone calling, SIPphone is aiming at
a longer-term goal, Robertson said.

By allowing free calling--but only to other people who use the same
technology--Robertson hopes to catalyze a community of people who increasingly use
the Internet for communications. The initial market is likely to be those who make
international calls or who have already replaced their land line with a cell phone
and a broadband Net connection, he said.

Business talk Initially, Robertson's company is offering two phones for $129.99.
The phones will work as soon as they are plugged into any live broadband
connection and come pre-configured with their own telephone numbers, he said.
The idea is similar to that of Free World Dialup, an older start-up that Net voice
advocate Jeff Pulver created. That service has 43,000 subscribers around the
world, according to the company.

Analysts said the idea would likely appeal to a small market but that few people
would want to use two sets of telephones for different kinds of calls. "There
certainly are opportunities for a community of users to be able to call another
community of users," Meta Group analyst Elizabeth Usher said. "But I would see
this really adopted for things like college students calling home for money." In
the course of his tumultuous career as an entrepreneur, Robertson has shown a
knack for identifying technologies on the brink of breaking into the consumer
market and serving as one of the primary vehicles for bringing them there. His
MP3.com was one of the early standard-bearers of the digital music revolution,
before it got shunted from the spotlight by the arrival of Napster.

His current Lindows project, which provides a Linux-based consumer operating
system to compete with Windows, has found its way into computers that are sold at
mainstream outlets such as Walmart.com and The Brick, a popular Canadian retail
store.  But in his consistent role as an industry gadfly, the towheaded Robertson
has also attracted a number of lawsuits. MP3.com was sued nearly out of existence
by the major record labels after offering a consumer service that was deemed by
the labels--and a federal judge--to be infringing copyrights. Lindows is defending
itself against a lawsuit filed by Microsoft, which sees Linux as the biggest
threat to its continued desktop dominance and contends that the Lindows name
violates Windows trademarks.  As the head of an Internet phone service provider,
Robertson would again be trying to shake up an entrenched industry that's
dominated by powerful corporations with near-bottomless pockets--in this case, the
traditional phone and cable TV companies. He said he'd continue devoting most of
his time to Lindows but would be CEO of both companies while SIPphone finds its
feet.  "There are a lot of very smart geeks out there already using SIP calling,"
Robertson said. "But we want to bring that to the masses."

Related News

Cox tests Internet phone service  July 30, 2003
http://news.com.com/2100-1037-5057926.html

FBI targets Net phoning  July 29, 2003
http://news.com.com/2100-1028-5056424.html

VoIP--a Tower of Babel?  July 17, 2003
http://news.com.com/2100-1038-1026975.html

Is Ma Microsoft calling?  June 12, 2003
http://news.com.com/2100-1037-1016355.html

Get this story's "Big Picture"
http://news.com.com/2104-1037-5060748.html

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