Voice 2.0 Apps Open Opportunities, Threaten Incumbents

“Voice 2.0 [offerings] are critical services that have not reached mass market adoption because of the cost and complexities client-server platforms, such as Web services, required to deliver rich, real-time content,” explained Mario Dal Canto, CEO and chairman at cloud computing platform provider SIMtone Corp.. “Cloud computing puts all the complexities back into the network and service provider data center, and makes the end-point agnostic to them, hence enabling the service provider to build and develop these services in a much simpler and more efficient way.”

Those efficiencies also unlock the access-pipe advantage traditional carriers have always had. “This has essentially taken telecom and modeled it on Amazon's [Internet-hosted] computing structure,” said Ribbit’s Griggs. “Once an application is deployed in the wild, the service provider can monitor and bill for it, all through the Web site. Anyone can deploy telecom into their services.”

Evolve or die

Household Internet names are joining the deployment rush, too: Google Inc. (GOOG) has launched a voice recognition application for the iPhone and has integrated voice- and video-chat capabilities into Gmail, its online email service. All potentially pose threats to traditional phone companies. “The world is changing the way it receives video, voice and data,” said SimpleSignal’s Gilbert. “All of these services are being delivered over the ‘Net... What many people don't realize is that we are not connected to one incumbent, proprietary network. We can actually seamlessly roll from one network to another.”

For example, Mobivox, which offers a voice-activated mobile services platform for service providers, is partnering with Unyk, maker of an “intelligent address book.” Unyk leverages a central database to unify access to a customer’s multiple address books across disparate networks, accessible anywhere in the world as a cloud service. Unyk’s 10 million users can use Mobivox voice-activated telephony commands to update that federated Unyk address book from any mobile phone, and place low-cost calls around the world regardless of network.

For those that embrace the change, there could be a large payoff. BroadSoft’s Keuneman says such applications are key to traditional telcos evolving to address the increasingly packetized era of convergence between IT and communications.

“We see our carriers evolving and we're helping them evolve with the technology,” Keuneman noted.

“The carriers are seeing major changes in the world, and the aggressive, more enlightened carriers see what the Web has brought to the marketplace in terms of an opportunity,” said John Hart, senior vice president, business development and marketing at IntelePeer. IntelePeer is partnering with Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) to enhance Web and business applications, such as Microsoft Outlook, with IntelePeer’s AppworX open communications platform for voice. “They can take a look at Web 2.0 and Voice 2.0 to see how they can add rich media enhancements to the cloud and sell them from there, enhancing what they already do for network services and traditional telephony.”

Ribbit’s Griggs says incumbents will have to take note. “For a traditional phone company to think that voice is just a feature might be difficult to embrace, but the genie isn't coming back in the bottle,” he added. “It’s evolve or die [for telcos], and some, like BT, are saying, ‘We're going to evolve first.’”