Speaking of VoIP

I still hate the acronym VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) and agree with industry pioneer Jeff Pulver on using the acronym VON (Voice on the Network) instead. But the VoIP acronym users ignore Jeff, and he’s a much bigger dog in this space than I am, so I bet they’ll continue to ignore me as well. At least I’m in good company.

Many in the industry figured Linksys would jump into the home and small office VON business (clever slip of the acronym, right?) sooner than now, but when Cisco bought Linksys the product lines got murky. How could Cisco protect their own business offerings if Linksys maintained their reputation for good products at low prices? How could Cisco resellers say “don’t buy those cheap products” if those cheap products had the Cisco name on them?

Looks like the Battle of Vice Presidents has been won by the Linksys group, as they introduced a new line of Internet Telephony products. Called the Linksys Voice System (LVS) 9000 series and including phones, gateways to the traditional telephone system and PBX boxes supporting up to 16 users, the standards-based products should win fans by the boatload in the small business space.

The Spring VON conference is underway right now, and many other companies are releasing products to compete with the new Linksys line. For instance, Switchvox says they have a new generation of equipment ready to go.

Skype, the world’s leader in proprietary ways to talk to people anywhere on the Internet through your computer, finally rolled out their Skype for Business product line. The Skype folks (now owned by eBay, remember) also made a big deal with the folks at SalesForce.com to support Skype calls within the SalesForce application.

No excuses now – call someone.