Buried in all the excitement over 1 cent per minute calling yesterday was an even more exciting announcement. Michael Robertson’s SIPPhone will offer free US Phone Numbers as well, in the new year. Phone numbers have traded for about $.05 to $.10 per month on the market for the last year or so. They are basically free already, which means that the carrier charging you $2.99 / month for a phone number is making a gigantic profit on them. By offering them free, SIPPhone is exposing them for the commodity that they really are. Telephone numbers are to telephones, what IP addresses are to computers. Nothing more.
Under the SIPPhone plan, telephone calls will become true pay-as-you-go services. Michael says the average person should expect to pay about $6/month for voice with SIPPhone. That sounds about right. Before the price reduction, I have been paying about $10/month.
Alec Saunders is the Vice President of Developer Relations for BlackBerry make Research in Motion. This is his personal blog, with his personal viewpoints. Prior to this Alec was the CEO and co-founder of Calliflower — the easiest way to hold a meeting, online, on a conference call, or on the go. A double-decade veteran of product management and marketing, he spent nine years at Microsoft where he helped launch Windows 95, the first two versions of Internet Explorer, the Universal Plug and Play initiative, the push into home markets, opt-in email marketing and what might well go down in history as the very first direct email list ever.
