The Deputy Director General for Telecomunications at the OUR (Office of
Utilities Regulation) in Jamaica feels that VoIP will eventually dominate
fixed phone lines. But VoIP industry players there are understating
that, saying that VoIP will supplement rather than dominate fixed
lines. [via Jamaica Gleaner]
I don't know exchange rates but unlimited calling
there costs between 1500-2000 Jamaican dollars per month. Service
initiation fees cost almost double that, one time. Sounds like a lot,
but apparently, though, this is "low cost".
Daily India has an interesting perspective to the value of VoIP
in the home: family ties. The article points out the cost of
long-distance calls have a negative social effect: loss of family ties
and resulting regret.
A rather heavy verdict, but maybe it's
true for immigrants of some countries. It's not surprising that many of
the reader questions on this site are basically "how can I call from/to
India for free". By sheer population size, India and, to a lesser
extent, China will have many ex-pats living elsewhere, say North
America, than other countries. Free calls, or at least inexpensive net2phone calls, would give families a stronger bond.
I've asked the question before: when you think of VoIP, who do you think of? Skype? Vonage?
Despite the reputed US$20 M/ month that Vonage spends on advertising,
and their slogan "VoIP with Vonage", more people might be associating VoIP with Skype. [via Networking Pipeline]
Regardless,
I'd choose Skype over Vonage any day simply because of all the extra
features, such as video, the ability to plug in Jyve to get paid for my time, file sharing, etc. Although, there are people who would benefit from a basic service such as Vonage.