For as long as we can remember, the telecom industry has been talking about a world with inexpensive, easy-to-use videoconferencing available to millions of PCs around the world.  Well it just hasn’t happened.  Connectivity costs have been too unwieldy and reliability hasn’t always been the best.  Equipment costs and ease of use have improved, but without the appropriate business case on the connectivity side it hasn’t mattered.  That said, video over IP appears to be creating renewed interest across the industry in making this vision a reality.

So let’s take a look at some examples of services that appear to be gaining traction across the industry.  We’ll look at three:  Glowpoint Networks (Wire One Technologies), Viditel (Santa Cruz Networks) and MASERGY .  Each of them has addressed the issue a little differently.

A network built for video over IP

Wire One Technologies is a provider of end-to-end videoconferencing solutions with an installed customer base of more than 3,000 companies and approximately 22,000 videoconferencing systems. Services based on its video over IP systems are delivered via the Glowpoint network, which is dedicated to H.323 videoconferencing. The goal of the Glowpoint network is to improve the quality, reliability, and functionality of video communications at dramatically lower network transmission costs.  The Glowpoint network was created specifically to support IP to enhance videoconferencing solutions.  Another priority for the company was to make videoconferencing work like audio conferencing - in other words, in a way users were familiar with and accustomed to. This entailed call setup, help and billing functionality similar to that of the audio conferencing world.  Service packages also include the required equipment.

Be the equipment vendor and the service provider

Santa Cruz Networks is a provider of real-time Internet communications systems. Its products are designed to enable high-quality, real-time communication featuring one-to-one or many-to-many audio and video, application sharing and instant messaging, over the Internet or any other IP network.  The company has a patent-pending technique for providing service performance, security, reliability and simplicity, and presence, directory and billing services are also included in their offerings. To date, Santa Cruz Networks products have delivered over 1.5 billion user minutes worldwide.