More than a half-dozen broadband phone carriers say they plan to add new nonvoice calling features that would be very difficult or impossible to match on traditional phone networks.
Rejection Hotline is one of the more offbeat ideas being hatched by VoIP service providers to attract customers. Others in the wings include a "click to call" feature from Internet phone service Vonage, which promises to allow subscribers to initiate a phone call by clicking on contact listings stored on their personal computer.
Breaking an innovation log jam
Home phones have seen relatively few changes during the past 100 years, with some of the biggest developments being limited to the production of more powerful ways of making phones cordless -- or to the addition of small screens that show an incoming caller's name and number.
Call forwarding, voice mail and call waiting are the most advanced of the handful of nonvoice calling features that traditional carriers now offer.
VoicePulse, Vonage, 8x8 and other broadband phone providers expect this year to see the debut of more-complex features that phones using traditional dialling methods can't support. For example, AT&T is contemplating a service that transfers calls automatically between a cellphone and landline phone without interrupting the conversation.
Historically, these applications have been devised, tested and shipped by Cisco Systems, Avaya and other traditional phone players that also sell the network infrastructure and software used to create Internet phone services. Since these companies typically target corporate buyers, the introduction of residential VoIP features has lagged.
"We haven't seen much more innovation than what you could already do over the regular phone network," said Dan Quandt, the chief financial officer of broadband phone operator VoEx.
Vonage hopes to shake things up in the next few weeks by releasing software developer tools that can be used to build applications that run on its broadband phone network.
