Telephony API of the Week: Voxbone

Wednesday is NOT Prince Sphagetti Day... it's API day. APIs connect service providers to applications in Web services architectures. Application designers use the functionality provided by the API to build their mashups or to build their business process applications. Service providers make money with their APIs in a number of ways, including directly paying for their use, by expanding their business base, or by providing the API for free, and deriving value from the data that they gather. Today, most Web APIs are free, but are expected to have licencsing costs for commercial deployments. Most communication APIs have some pay-per-use associated with them, since they expose transactions, such as SMS, which cost money.

Today's API is Voxbone, a provider of DID numbers to the VoIP community. DID stands for Direct Inward Dial, and essentially, it's how you get a phone number. With the Voxbone API, you can find phone numbers and purchase them for your VoIP service. Once you purchase your phone number, you can set it to point to any SIP (a common VoIP protocol) address you wish. This has some direct business implications, because it allows providers to offer phone numbers world wide, without keeping an inventory of them, increasing functionality for the users, and saving money for the providers.

Why would you, the application designer, wish to do this? I'll give you one, and I'm sure you can fill in the rest: temporary numbers. Wouldn't you like to have an anonymous phone number? Classified ads are a fantastic place to use a temporary number. With the Voxbone API, you can get a phone number, assign it to your cell phone using a SIP URI that maps into a direct line into a PSTN number, and off you go. Return it when you're done. I'm going to take my number and point it to a Voxeo script.

So, in your toolbox, you can now get a phone number, whenever you want, and put it back when you're done.

The New Voice Over IP Mantra

As I restart my consulting and custom development practice, I find it useful, at all times and everywhere, to chant my new mantra. After being in the traditional carrier space for so long, feeling the suffering that only comes from seeking satisfaction from something inherently unsatisfying, I feel as though I have finally achieved enlightenment. Just like Buddha, after achieving inner clarity, I spent a few weeks ambivalent, just sort of hanging around with this new knowledge. But now, my compassion is getting the better of me, and I wish to share this inner knowledge with all you, Buddhas to be.

Sit down in a quiet spot, turn down the lights and center on your breath. Feel the breath on your upper lip as you breath out. As you sit, repeat the following mantra, keeping it close to your heart.

Integrating real time communications with the business process makes businesses faster, saves money, and increases customer satisfaction. Integrating real time communications with the business process makes businesses faster, saves money, and increases customer satisfaction. Integrating real time communications with the business process makes businesses faster, saves money, and increases customer satisfaction.

Remember, pain is unavoidable, but suffering is your choice.

Introducing the Voice Over IP Literacy Podcasts

One of the best parts of my life is when I get to meet new people and teach them about the technology that I've worked in most of my professional life : Voice over IP. One thing I've noticed is that there's a lot to learn in our industry, and for some people, it's hard to know where to start. For these otherwise brilliant people, I'll be your host for a series of podcasts called the VoIP Literacy series. We'll touch on a number of basic points about voice over IP, from protocols to equipment, from the history of this industry to where it's likely to go from here. I hope that our listeners will learn the basics of next generation voice architectures, and it will provide a starting point for their own exploration.

Don't worry if you are just starting out and feel as though there's too much to learn. I've been involved in this field since the early nineties as an engineer at PictureTel, an early videoconferencing vendor that pioneered the use of packetized audio and video over all sorts of networks, and with little exception, have been in it ever since. I am continuously amazed at the sheer number things I don't know.

The podcasts are hosted from my website at ThomasHowe.com, and I've even placed transcriptions on the resources pages. Each podcast is about five minutes long, so you can probably get through one before your SIP phone rings. I would really appreciate any feedback you can give to me, because I'm sure that as much as I can help others learn, I'll be repaid ten-fold in what they can teach me.