Hearing voices

Linksys and Netgear, two of the big names in the broadband router business, have each announced that they are working with residential voice over IP juggernaut Vonage to add voice ports and integrate Vonage's service with their products. Also, both vendors are planning 802.11g Wi-Fi routers integrated with voice over IP.

For many of the people that already have either networked homes or Vonage service (or both), this might represent the real future potential they were hoping for when they signed up for these services.

With the wireless aspect of these announcements, the vision of the fully networked broadband home will take a large leap forward. It wasn't so long ago that many people in the telecom industry believed concerns about power, reliability and security would keep evolutions in both residential Wi-Fi and residential VoIP at bay indefinitely.

However, a rapidly growing group of customers is telling us that isn't the case with either technology, and that they won't fear the future. Now, it might be up to traditional service providers to make the same decision.

E-mail me at doshea@primediabusiness.com.