Vidtel consumer videophone service arrives

Vidtel, a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based videophone company, moved out of beta testing into a soft launch last week. Is the world finally ready for a consumer videophone service? Vidtel sent FierceVoIP a couple of the beta units, and we will provide first-hand subjective comments down the road, but let's get the basic story down first.

Speaking via a Vidtel unit on Friday, CEO/Founder Scott Wharton said Vidtel is, "Taking orders, taking paying customers, and is live." The service is going to be initially launched to "people we know, our extended community, people in the telecom industry," as the company tests and refines its internal systems before entering the mainstream market.

An emphasis on the warm-fuzzy side will be part of the initial rollout, as Vidtel reaches out to grandparents, mothers with new children, families separated by distance, and even people who want to be able to check up on their pets while they are that work. "There's an auto answer function on the phone to say high to Fido or Muffy," said Wharton. Vidtel also plans to market the phone to the hearing-impaired and telecommuters.

Slow-and-steady is another part of Vidtel's strategy. The company has no desire to run into the expensive and dollar-gobbling channels of Best Buy and other big box stories. Instead, the cost of customer acquisition will be kept down and the use of channel partners/VARs will play a key role in connecting people and communities within vertical markets.

Videl is initially providing a plug-and-play, out of the box videophone solution built around GrandStream's GXV3000 video phone - the phone supports SIP, H.264, bandwidth from 32 Kbps to 1 Mbps, has a 5.6 inch TFTP LCD screen and VGA camera. A Vidtel customized firmware load goes onto the unit and includes an XML phone directory of Vidtel users.

The phone costs $199.99 plus tax, in addition to calling plans. The standard calling plan is $14.95 per month with unlimited video calling in the Vidtel network, and you can also make vanilla voice calls within the US, Canada, and Puerto Rico at 3.9 cents per minute. A premium plan at $29.99 per month includes unlimited vanilla voice calls to US, Canada, and Puerto Rico, plus unlimited video calls. Activation is a one-time cost of $19.99, and there is a shipping and handling fee for the phone of $19.95, plus federal and state taxes and 911 fees.

Vidtel has a pretty big roadmap moving forward. The company will resell its services through "thousands" of wireless ISPs and smaller CLECs. There's also the ability to white-label the service to larger carriers by simply reworking the customized firmware load a bit.

In 2009, the company will be working on integrating its service with video conferencing systems such as Polycom, other video calling networks, and chat services. Vidtel customers will have the ability to make and receive video calls from services such as Skype, iChat, Google, and video-enabled mobile phones.