[shmerl]

I hope open protocols will catch up already. XMPP/Jingle has user side multiplexing for a while (MUJI), but it requires decent bandwidth. It's a deferred XEP for some reason though. Also, most clients lack support for it. Server side multiplexing wasn't standardized for some reason, so XMPP servers didn't come up with anything common so far.

Skype remains just another proprietary walled garden communication network which in addition can't be trusted. It should be avoided.

[rz2k]

I think it is amazing how little strategy and disruption there seems to be in the industry.

My dad is mostly retired, he rents out his office, but his secretary still comes into the office one afternoon a week. I didn't want to stress her out by asking her to learn new technology, but the phone was used only an hour or two a month. I ported the same number he'd had for a few decades to Google Voice, and attached an ObiHai box so that she can use a regular phone, rather than needing to understand why messages are in Google Voice but outgoing calls are placed using Google Chat, or use a special earpiece plugged into the computer.

Anyway, over the two years that it worked it saved a couple thousand dollars that would have been spent to use the phone for about 30 hours. Since Google Voice will no longer be compatible with ObiHai devices this month (moving away from XMPP), I ported the number to Anveo, which is no longer free, but still only $40/year.

Both Microsoft and Google should offer small businesses packaged services where you bring your own internet service, then buy telephone plus email using your own domain name from them for a flat fee. Something like $200-400/year for 1-3 users would find an enormous market. Afterwards, they could sell office suites, billing/accounting software, scheduling software as add-ons.

Right now it is needlessly complicated for people who have minimal communication needs, and don't care about technology, to avoid huge costs. It's kind of absurd to consider how little service someone like a barber or a shop owner gets after paying fees that make up a significant part of their operating costs.

[tanzam75]

> Both Microsoft and Google should offer small businesses packaged services where you bring your own internet service, then buy telephone plus email using your own domain name from them for a flat fee.

Microsoft is focusing on the enterprise, because that's where the money is. For example, CERN is using Microsoft Lync as an IP PBX, using the Polycom CX300. It looks like a desk telephone and works like a desk telephone. It can even retrieve voicemail. But it plugs in to a USB port and uses Lync for calling. https://espace.cern.ch/mmmservices-help/UnifiedCommunication...

It's a lot simpler to sell to CERN and pick up 2500 users, than to sell to 2500 different barbershops. For one thing, CERN has competent IT staff who won't be costing Microsoft a lot of money in support calls.

As for Google, they seem to actively be avoiding telephony. For example, Gizmo5 used to offer SIP connectivity, and then Google got rid of Google Voice forwarding to Gizmo5. And now the elimination of XMPP and the option to use Obihai. Even Google Fiber was set up as a double-play instead of a triple-play: they'll sell you Internet and television, but not phone.

I get the feeling that Google wants to make absolutely sure that it is not regulated as a telephony provider, with all the hassles around 911, service availability, being able to call high-cost rural exchanges, etc.

[Oculus]

won't be costing Microsoft a lot of money in support calls

I think you've got it backwards, there's nothing Microsoft loves more then support calls because that's where their real cash cow is: charging enterprise monstrous yearly support fees.

[tanzam75]

In other words, enterprise support contracts are making Microsoft money -- not costing it money.

Consumers and small businesses aren't nearly as willing to open their wallets for support. The best customer is one who pays the annual fee and never calls in for support.

[shmerl]

Ooma is also rather cheap for telephony. Once you bought the device, you only pay taxes basically (which is something like $3.80 a month).

[ams6110]

Most people I know who have such small business phone needs will just use their mobile phone.

[zokier]

What do you think of COLIBRI[1]? Does it seem like it could address this problem adequately? Does it have a chance of getting traction beyond just Jitsi?

[1] https://jitsi.org/colibri/

[shmerl]

That's interesting, and it's about server side multiplexing. But I have no clue why it's not accepted as official XEP yet. In general, the progress of XMPP standards seems very slow.

[AceJohnny2]

How's XMPP mobile nowadays? OTR?

[shmerl]

Depends on the client. A major hole is Telepathy, which lacks end to end encryption support, so all mobile clients based on that (Sailfish one, Plasma Active one and etc.) are lacking it. Jitsi (which is in Java and WIP in alpha stage for Android) supports OTR and ZRTP. There are clients like Xabber which support just OTR on Android (none of them support Jingle and ZRTP). Not sure about the situation on other mobile OSes.