Voice is just so boring…
This industry. The voice telecommunications industry surely is not the sexiest thing in the world. We can talk to each other around the world or even from space to earth, and still the voice industry is largely perceived to be boring.
How did that happen?
20 years ago when the 1996 Telecommunications Act was passed, voice was a thriving industry rife with possibility and opportunity. Billions were being invested in the industry, and new companies were forming every day. One of those companies, which a bunch of us here at GCS worked at was ITXC.
ITXC was one of the pioneers in the industry as we pushed the VoIP revolution into the voice interconnect marketplace. Most of us grew up during the span of 1997 through 2007 as VoIP, and later SIP, came into fashion. Now, fast forward to 2016 and voice has become bland, passé, …aka boring. And yet, here we are - we have all this knowledge, and expertise and, as crazy as it may seem, real passion for the voice industry. Since 2009 we have been researching, developing, and refining our software solution to help carriers improve the way they run their voice business. We focus on the day to day specifics of running a global voice network from the interconnect side of the business. Our software allows carriers to perform a diverse set of tasks, execute standard processes, and provide critical business insight to help inform how the business should be managed.
From our perspective voice is anything BUT boring. In fact, it is one of the most innovative and exciting times to be in voice. Competition is tight, complexity is greater than ever, and carriers are actively seeking solutions. We look at this time as a period of great opportunity in the voice industry. Yes, per minute costs have come down, which means revenues and margins are impacted, but overall call volumes are up, and even with all the text based messaging that seems to be intruding into our daily lives, the prognostication of voice being dead really hasn’t materialized.
Here at GCS, we spend every day focused on helping carriers improve their voice operations relating to interconnect voice. It is our mission. It is our passion. It is how we make our livelihood. The industry is going through an important phase of evolutionary (dare we say revolutionary) change. The new communication service providers that offer voice will still be required to provide quality voice calls at a market price point. Seems simple enough, right? But when you peel back the “onion” on what’s required to do that, you reveal a host of complexities that require real sophistication, smarts and expertise. So, to the layman, voice may be boring. We get it. But, to us, it’s anything but boring!