As broadband Internet connections become more common, voice-over-IP (VoIP) services are rapidly increasing in popularity. In general, most organisations consider VoIP to be a cost-saving way to bypass the telephone companies.
However, VoIP is certainly no panacea. From the standpoint of Internet security, it's important to keep in mind that VoIP is still an Internet service, so the technology is subject to the same type of problems as any other Internet service. Worms, viruses, and DoS attacks can affect the usability of VoIP services, and the majority of these attacks will be outside the control of the VoIP provider.
In addition, VoIP presents some legal issues, not the least of which is whether we consider VoIP a "pure" Internet service. While the most governments don't typically regulate Internet services, VoIP could change that.
I'm closely watching VoIP technology for a number of reasons, particularly because I'm interested to see how VoIP and Internet security will intersect. I will say that using VoIP to replace clunky PBX systems has proven to be a great success at many companies. But using VoIP to replace the public-switched telephone network is a different matter entirely.
VoIP has become one of the latest buzzwords for the Internet industry. Because governing agencies can't possibly regulate or control VoIP like traditional land-line phone systems, it's appealling to competitive local exchange carriers as a lower-cost way to compete with the incumbent local exchange carriers.
But don't forget that VoIP is an Internet service -- and that means no Internet service, no phone service. VoIP differs drastically from land-line telephone systems, despite claims from companies and governments insisting that they're identical services.
For example, in the United States, land-line telephone systems are subject to a variety of governmental regulations regarding wiretapping and emergency service use. Specific laws, such as the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, can't possibly apply to all VoIP services, regardless of recent rulings insisting on placing wiretaps on VoIP services. In my opinion, it's just not possible to regulate VoIP like this.
What government agencies are failing to understand is that security is a personal choice. If people want to communicate securely, they will do so regardless of whether it's legal.
And they will use freely available strong encryption. With the source code for programs such as PGPfone available on the Internet, all the VoIP regulations in the world won't make a difference.
But just how reliable and usable is VoIP anyway? In a time when mobile phones can be unusable at times, I don't place much faith in VoIP ever becoming as good or reliable as a land-line telephone.
Remember that VoIP services use software, and all software has flaws. VoIP technology works, but its long-term security is still undetermined, and complex legal and technical issues exist that is likely to take a long time to resolve.
Talkback
An excellent article.
For too long now certain interested parties have been trying to hype VoIP services, in some cases well before its time. Predicitions that the major voice carriers will fail have not come true and are unlikely to as they are adopting VoIP technology too. VoIp as a technology is good. That does not mean the service that are offered are.
Much of the hype about Internet Voice services has come from the US where (despite media reports to the contrary) telephone calls are actually quite expensive due to local and federal taxes and access surcharges. In this environment VoIP services are often cheaper simply because they don't pay these additional fees (yet!). The economics of VoIP services in the US are, therefore, based on false accounting.
Elsewhere, where such taxes and surcharges don't apply, it is possible to buy traditional voice services at cheaper rates than many VoIP services.
This article also allused to something which is very important to realise: Voice across the Internet is not a service. It is a facilty. It contains very few of the aspects that make up a voice service (such as monitoring and responsibility for faults or degradation) that a real voice service provides.
Yes, it can be cheaper (especially with the current preferential tax treatment in the US), but the comparison is not equal. You are not getting the same for your money. Let's see Vonage sort out your service next time your ISP has capacity or peering problems. Anyone who doesn't believe me should get a visit to a large telco NOC and see the amount of effort that goes into making your phone server work.
The winners in the VoIP game are not the fly-by-night Internet Voice players, but thos carriers and ISPs that can harness the technology, complete with all the service wrap, to offer something approaching the service that customers already have from traditional voice services.