at&t launches VoIP in Detroit

At&t says it will soon launch VoIP for U-verse customers. The service has been launched in the Detroit market. The service is a replacement for traditional landline service and is priced accordingly.

A $40 monthly fee provides unlimited domestic calling while a $20 a month plan provides 1,000 long distance minutes. The service includes an online call manager portal, unified messaging, click to call from the TV, and simultaneous ring of up to four separate telephone numbers.

So the long march towards VoIP by dominant telcos begins. As just about everybody now recognizes, VoIP will in some cases represent an incremental change in user behavior, in some cases a replacement for traditional calling and in some cases a better way to do traditional calling with a better user experience.

Pretty soon we'll start to get some insight into the ways VoIP helps traditional telcos, in addition to representing a threat to established revenue streams. Without widespread fiber-to-customer networks and a complete shut-off of traditional time division multiplex infrastructure, it will be hard to say for certain.

But Verizon executives think they will save operating expense when they are able to shut off the TDM voice network and shift everything over to IP.