Idea Center: Whither IP Telephony?

Having worked on VoIP Telephony equipment, I wonder where is all this equpment? IP Telephony today is complementary to existing telecom and ISP infrastructure. ISP and Telecom providers have been desperately waiting for strong content that can drive their traffic and revenues. Today most of the POTS (Plain Old Telephone Systems) continue to exist.

Yes, I do get to use Skype or just about any other IP Telephony service I fancy. However I'd be better of with a desk phone at home with IP Telephony. The Soft IP Phones on my PC let me store contacts and access them easily with a "cool" (duh?) interface to chat. However, I cannot keep my PCs on to attend phone calls.

So here's the missing story for the Home User

Existing IP Telephony Equipment that is potentially usable (with access to online directories) is pricey for me as the domestic consumer (or at least this is what I feel.)

I go to eZone or the nearest electronics showroom and I don't find any IP Telephone, I start wondering Where are the IP Telephones I could buy?
I need to search or order on the Internet, but I am still wondering is it easy to get support for home usage of an IP telephone? Who can I call or e-mail?

My Phone service provider always decided what color of phone I had. At least with all this "New Technology", can I decide what color my phone will be? I can buy cars of different colors, different color PC casings, why not different colors for my IP Telephone?
Existing IP Telephony products need at least a DSL "Modem" to be present on the consumer side for Home deployment (Ouch!)
Even if they are deployed, real time streaming bandwidth (upstream vs downstream) is usually not metered by the IP Telephony devices because most were never made to "meter" calls and inform the user of time spent and bandwidth usage. This is a very strong driver for home usage when bandwidth costs are significant*.
Accessing large contact books requires larger displays, and dialing over the internet ends up requiring that you "type in" all the information about the contacts.

Trouble here is with the traditional telephone design, I don't want to see a "keyboard" to make it look like a laptop, I want a phone.

The answer should be "voice recognition" or a small digital scribble pad that can potentially allow users to "easily" (as easy as speaking or writing) add contact names and numbers.

Old POTS phones required us to buy complex equipment for "recording calls." IP Telephony can make inroads by introducing devices that either have built-in call recording features or simple add-ons that can be installed physically or in software.
I would love to have an answering machine at home, but do the present IP Telephones address this? Spending $60 - $150, I would never get this feature, so why buy a new IP Telephone?
It would be nice if we had a phone that we can talk to so long as we are in the room (for home environments) while we are walking around and doing something else. Sadly IP Telephones follow the age old idea of having to sit near the phone to have a conversation.
As a home user, I have a mobile phone that plays the ringtone of my choice, it lets my callers hear a ringtone of my choice. I want to do this with my IP Telephone, Possible?
As an average joe home user I don't want to install complex IP-PBX equipment to have automated call transfers. So is there any way the IP phones provide that?

Could there be a simple device that allows transfer of calls from my IP Telephone to my POTS land line when I am not at home? (Am I asking too much?)

I am not a PC savvy user, but my IP Telephone tells me I have to be able to "PING" another phone to use call it. What is that?
If I have no other option but to type text on my IP Telephone, can I have "Automatic Text Prompting" which I get for typing SMSes on my mobile phone. It seems so easy and simple and yet I can't do it.

Wouldn't it be simple to use an online service and SMS at least local Mobile phone numbers from my IP Telephone. I am already connected to the internet and I want to send out an important message to one of my contacts.

My friend on the phone is giving me a phone number I have to call next for an emergency, do I again have to use pen and paper to jot it down? Is there a way he can type out the phone number on his side and I can use it straight off?

Better still, can my friend on the line actually send me a contact from his IP Telephone to mine? I can easily do this with my mobile phone and I expect this in any "new generation" phone.

Coming over to office,

I'd love to have an automated address book with all those at my office on my IP Telephone. I don't want to sit down and enter phone numbers into an address book by talking or scribbling.

Putting a keypad and expecting me to enter "Names", "Alphanumeric Data" is outrageous.
Who has the time to sit down and populate the phone with all relevant office contact numbers?
Wait, Can I do it with a web interface, download a simple "vCard"? This sounds like a simple idea, I have a PC at office! I still do type such information on my PC.

Can my IP Telephone playback a pre-recorded message if I am not at my desk or am busy with something else? My mobile phone can do this, why can't the IP Telephone on my desk do this?
I'm sitting in a meeting room having a teleconference with other members of my company across the world. At the end of the conference I realise,

I forgot to minute some important points of the conversation. Can I download the conversation from my IP Phone to my PC on MP3 or a similar format and listen to it again?
I am doing medical transcription, BPO transcription, monitoring the calls of my customer care executives, but oops, I need specialized equipment to intercept and record calls and that costs me $$$.
Can I press a "RECORD" button during the call to record an important message my manager or colleague is telling me. I don't see such buttons on the IP Telephones I have seen.

On an average, I'd like to know some details like, how much time was I spending on the IP Phone? Can I connect online to my IP Phone and find out? Does it have a simple display that tells me?
Wait do I have to configure my PC with some special software to access my IP Phone?
I have a small office and no special equipment to broadcast messages. I have people sitting in different rooms in my office and can't walk around to catch them quickly. I desperately want to make an announcement.

Can I give everyone a "broadcast" call from my IP phone? Whoever picks up within 30 seconds listens to my announcement!
I want to send out a popup message to everyone in my office by text. Can I just type out something on the online interface and broadcast it to everyone or a select "group" of users? My Instant Messengers like Yahoo and MSN Chat let me do this.

I had a missed call on my IP Phone, but the LCD on it is so dim that I didn't bother to look. Can the IP Phone light up or indicate that there was a missed call, after all this is my office phone, not the mobile phone.
Can I set my IP Phone to silent or "Work" mode when I am doing serious work, I do not want to be disturbed while I am working on an important problem.

I am surprised that a new generation equipment doesn't help me have a Silent or Meeting mode where it just flashes LEDs or a screen and not ring painfully during a call.
I am working at a research center and my colleagues are irritated that all the Telephones sound alike, can I have a variant ring tone or a different ring duration to know that it is my phone that's ringing. I am sitting close to my colleagues in cubicles.

I want to check time in different timezones, I am calling a business partner in singapore and I don't want to switch to my PC to find out what time it is. Can I have at least two time displays or more on my IP Telephone?

I don't want to guess and disturb my business partner or client by calling him at the wrong time of the day or night.

Can I lock my IP telephone with a Voice Code or with an Online password? This is to prevent other staff in my office picking it up while I know I will be away.

Old PSTN services let me enter Number Codes for locking specific services, but I hate to use a small keypad to type text.

If I have no other option but to type text on my IP Telephone, can I have "Automatic Text Prompting" which I get for typing SMSes on my mobile phone. It seems so easy and simple and yet I can't do it.
I was away from office for a long leave and have about 40 missed calls. Now I have to prioritize and call them. The screen on the IP Telephone is too small for me to use, and it is too dim for me to read everything.

Can I use a simple Online web interface to change priority and call my contacts one after the other?

Can I download software upgrades to my IP Telephone over the Internet, just download the firmware from a website and press upgrade on my browser? I find the lengthy procedure on my phone too complicated.

After having worked on the basic Hardware Platforms of IP Telephones and having used a few models, I have seen ones with larger screens, small screens, no screens. But the worst part is I don't find the features I would like most. If I really need some of the features I have listed above, I may end up shelling out $300 as a home user or never have it at office because my office doesn't believe there's an affordable solution.

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