New Vendors Hitting Retail VoIP Market

By Greg Scoblete On Aug 23 2004 - 6:00am

Following the successful retail penetration of VoIP start-up Vonage, at least two more VoIP equipment and service providers have begun to angle for shelf space.

Worldwide Telco announced that it is bringing its VoIP lineup of five “wIPphones” (for Worldwide IP Phone) to dealers this month. Its service plans, a mix of prepaid and pay-as-you-go, will be identical for all products.

The products include the WP25, a PC or soft phone that comes with a headset and splitter for using external speakers. For a suggested $19.99, the WP25 works with both dial-up and broadband access and requires users to call through the PC using the soft phone software.

The WP50 features an ATA adapter and call router that connects a regular home phone and PC and uses either a dial-up or broadband connection. It also requires the PC to be on to place calls. It will retail for a suggested $29.

The $55-suggested WP75 is a full-featured Internet telephone set that makes calls without the computer being turned on.

The WP100 is also geared for broadband subscribers. It connects a regular phone or PBX analog-line port to a modem and does not require a PC. The suggested retail is $39.

Eytan Dorfan, Worldwide Telco CEO, said the company is positioning its offer on the basis of inexpensive calling, not as a primary line replacement as Vonage is.

Boston-based Zoom Technologies announced that it will bring its ZoomTel VoIP hardware with bundled Global Village VoIP phone service to retail this month.

The first product will be the ADSL X5v, an ADSL modem with built-in VoIP capability. The X5v features a router, a gateway, an SPI and NAT firewall, a four-port Ethernet switch and a USB port for a suggested $99. It comes with an adapter to connect to a home phone .

In September, the company will ship just the adapter for cable modem owners. Retail price wasnt announced.