February 2001

Hi Tom,

I enjoyed your column, "Build A Better Shopping Site With VoIP." I am confused, however, by the following excerpt: "I saw a demo of their product in the lab over a dial-up connection that connected at 48,000 Kbps. Even at this speed, the voice quality was superb and latency was minimal." Do you mean 48 Kbps? Otherwise you are talking 48 Mbps.

Next question -- what Web-based software and/or ASP service is available today for Web-based meetings, white boarding, collaboration, etc., with a VoIP layer accessible through humble dial up connection speeds? I found CoolTalk from Netscape and NetMeeting from Microsoft but was hoping you could help me source some additional solutions.

Mark Varley

Tom Keating responds:

To address your first question, yes, I meant 48,000 kbps. Now, on to your next question. In my opinion, forget CoolTalk or even NetMeeting for what you are looking for. By themselves, these products are virtually useless as a business tool. You'll need companies that put add-ons to NetMeeting or use their own proprietary VoIP software.

For collaboration products with VoIP capabilities, you should check out eShare, eYak, Latitude, and CUSeeMe Networks. Also, you mentioned ASP-model products, so you should check out WebDialogs, which is an ASP-model product with VoIP and collaboration capabilities, including the ability to push Web pages. If you just want ASP-model VoIP with little or no collaboration, check out Atinav, eStara, HearMe, HotVoice, or LipStream, though there are several others. You should also check out the TMC Labs ASP-model VoIP button shootout in the January issue of Internet Telephony magazine.

The following letter refers to Tom Keating's Cc: in the December issue:

Hi Tom,

Regarding your column, "Heeding The Call Of Standards," there is one point you might want to be aware of (perhaps you already are).

The reason SIP is less complex and less vague is that it solves a much smaller subset of the problem than H.323. There are many areas of call set up, control, and particularly application data that are still left to be defined. The current thinking is that this will be done via XML, which is, in my opinion, the right direction. Even still, the semantics of the XML data-type definitions will need to be defined by the standards bodies, which will take time.

So, the world will move inexorably to SIP, but less quickly than people might hope for -- not because H.323 is better, but because a) there is a huge installed base and b) because SIP is not yet fully defined.

Bobby Martyna

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