AT&T Wants To Scare Off VoIP Competitors

from the ah,-it's-nothing... dept

AT&T, who just dumped their residential landline business in favor of VoIP is now trying to suggest that VoIP telephony is going to be a tiny business -- worth only about $2 billion to the $25 billion-a-year company. There are plenty of ways to respond to this. First, just because they're a $25 billion-a-year company now, that doesn't mean they always will be. Second, everyone knows that VoIP brings in less direct revenue. Part of the reason customers are signing up for VoIP is that it's cheap. So, saying that it's such a "small" market isn't really stating anything new. In fact, it seems pretty clear that this statement is being said just to scare off competitors who are thinking about entering the market. He's hoping they hear that it's a small market and forget about it. Of course, if it were really such a small market, why would AT&T bother? Because they realize that the direct market for VoIP telephony is just the beginning. VoIP opens up many new opportunities to provide services and applications to users that will offer many more ways to profit from the traditional telephony system. In fact, as VoIP establishes itself as a platform, expect to see more providers drop the entrance fee towards zero, as it helps them build up other areas of their business (and cause trouble for those who are only relying on voice telephony).