How for sixteen years we tried to provide voice services and what came of it

Good day. Today, together with the user @ Enom123, I would like to talk about the m-1.cash project .

It all started back in the last century, in 1999. Then our company began to work with VoIP . At first, we organized call centers equipped with a special adapter with an FXS port . Our equipment was compatible with Net2Phone software - at that time the world leader in providing IP-telephony services for PCs, along with Deltathree . All of this had one goal - cheap calls all over the world.

The most amazing thing is that now the services of these companies seem to be useless, in the age of instant messengers and other Skype, but then they were on horseback. What is it worth buying a 32% stake in Net2Phone by the American giant AT&T for $ 1.4 billion. Although at that moment it seemed logical: the service was in demand, the company provided quality service, there was a built-in payment using a Visa or Mastercard plastic card. Actually, then we decided to do our own development, and why not? In 2002, we made the first attempt to make our own “softphone”.

Almost 15 years ago, the SIP protocol was not yet very popular and the H.323 protocol was used, which, by the way, is still the “standard” in the field of IP-telephony, although it is not connected with the IP protocol. At that time, the application turned out to be rather big - 6 megabytes, however, it worked pretty well even on dual-up modems with a speed of 33.6 Kb / s. Now remember how many channels the same Skype is eating now :). It’s clear that in 2002 we didn’t even talk about video conferences; our application worked exclusively with voice communication. But we were not destined to rise. Just a year later, in 2003, Skype appeared on the market, which quickly gained immense popularity due to the low prices for international calls. Well, then it went, went. Chats, video communications, the explosive development of Internet infrastructure and a multiple increase in bandwidth. We are left overboard.

The second time we decided to try our hand at the communications market only in 2011. Then we made a “dialer” for Android, but it constantly “hung up” the device. Then Viber appeared (hello Skype in 2003), which then did not have chats, transferring files of everything that painfully makes it look like Skype again. The niche of video calls was also taken - Tango tried to squeeze out the same ubiquitous Skype in this market.

So, we were faced with the fact that the market for the most fashionable and popular areas of communication services was already divided and there were enough players. But where do we go? We turned our eyes to what death has long predicted - GSM and PSTN networks(public network, if expressed in workers and peasants). These two areas have suffered huge losses due to the advent of the Internet era, but still remain afloat - everyone has a mobile phone (with rare exceptions), and some have two or three. Landline telephones are also still present in offices at workplaces and here we could try to find a place for ourselves.

It was decided to create a service that would allow you to call just to other networks, and specifically communicate with the subscribers of these very giants of the world of GSM and PSTN. After all, what are the main vulnerabilities of Skype, Viber and others? Own ecosystem. Yes, the same Skype allows you to make calls to mobile and other numbers, but its main functionality, or rather the functionality that most people use, is calls within Skype and chats. Also with Viber. Therefore, we decided to focus on what others, in places, “forgot” - calls anywhere and to anyone on the GSM and PSTN networks, after which you do not have to sell a kidney to pay bills.

Market analysis showed that we have not very many competitors, the main one, of course, is Viber, but it has a slightly different CA. Of course, we have both classical file transfer and chats, but first of all we focus on calls to external networks, i.e. on the fact that for the main market players it has now become a “side” functionality in the eyes of users.

Of course, you can use applications for the SIP protocol, such as CSipSimple (the brainchild of Google), 3CX and the like. But they have one significant drawback - a high entry threshold for technical literacy. They need to be configured, register usernames, passwords, server addresses, and so on. And no matter how it simply would not look like for an advanced user, the bulk of potential customers cannot or do not want to overcome this threshold using simpler but more expensive alternatives.

A little bit of technical details of our project:

• The messenger works on SIP protocol with RCS (Rich Communicatin Suit) binding.
• For audio calls within the network, the OPUS / 48000 HD codec is used, for video - VP8.
• For calls to other networks, the standard G729 codec is used.

Of course, not everyone may like the slogan slogans on our homepage , but there are good reasons for this: we don’t have investors , so we focus on providing paid services and attracting new users through the referral program. Everything is in the best traditions of financial pyramids and other MMMs: bring the user's mammoth and get 5% to your account from his paid calls :). Yes, while you have to work in such a way as to encourage user activity. We also give $ 1 for calls to any destination to everyone who has registered by phone number (when registering via e-mail, a bonus is not provided). Let's just say that we give the opportunity to test our service.

After reading the article, it may seem that for all 16 years we have only been doing that we developed failed messengers, but this is not so. All these years, we have provided and continue to provide IP telephony services for both the B2C and B2B sectors, as well as working as a transit operator with companies such as Tata Communication, Slovak Telecom and others.

In the future, if the community favors this publication, we will tell many more interesting things about our project and IP-telephony technologies. Thanks for attention.