VoIP, VoIP Everywhere

from the can't-avoid-it dept

Thu, Dec 11th 2003 9:15am — Mike Masnick

Okay, VoIP is officially the hot topic of the season. You can't go anywhere without seeing a story about deals and/or regulation concerning VoIP. Just days after Time Warner made deals with Sprint and MCI to provide internet telephony to customers, AT&T came along and announced major VoIP plans themselves. (Update: Also just announced: Qwest is offering VoIP as well.) Everyone seems to forget, of course, that BellSouth actually tried to offer VoIP for about a week a year ago and suddenly someone higher up freaked out and pulled the plug. While the big telcos claim they're jumping on the VoIP bandwagon, there's still going to be an internal struggle of cash cow vs. emerging technology. I'm not convinced that the telcos are prepared to cannibalize their own business yet. Meanwhile, a lot of what will happen still depends on what the folks at the FCC decide to do about VoIP. Jeff Pulver has written up his concerns about the FCC's plans over at News.com. The piece is based on Reed Hundt's talk at Pulver's Wireless Summit. However, reading through it, it sounds as though it was written before the FCC's hearing on VoIP where it was made clear that Michael Powell would prefer not to regulate VoIP. That doesn't mean it won't happen, but the battlefield is becoming clearer. The upstarts continue to build marketshare (and lower prices - Vonage is now offering deals as low as $15/month), the telcos are waking up to the challenge, and the government is trying to figure out what to do about it. Who knows how it will all turn out - but it looks like we're going to have a lot more telephony choices in the near future.

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7 Comments

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dorpus, 11 Dec 2003 @ 10:09am

MCI Math
For people who don't have a high-speed net connection, voip makes no sense. So let's see, consumers are supposed to "save" money if they:

1. buy an expensive high-speed net connection
2. buy the software, and make everyone else buy it too
3. have to have the computer on to make a call

Sounds like video telephony -- the technology that's always just 10 years away from mass market use.
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- Mike (profile), 11 Dec 2003 @ 10:17am
  
  Re: MCI Math
  Not sure which VoIP world you've been living in, but none of the solutions we're talking about require software or a computer at all... Or that the other person be using the same technology. These are calls that can be made to or from POTS lines using a regular telephone.
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  - dorpus, 11 Dec 2003 @ 10:30am
    
    Re: MCI Math
    In that case, that would just be an internal configuration change on the phone company's end, so the consumer will not have more choices.
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    - Mike (profile), 11 Dec 2003 @ 10:52am
      
      Re: MCI Math
      Not quite. Having a similar interface at the end is just a way to slip the VoIP phones into the home. Then, as more people do get VoIP phones, it does allow for much much much more to be done with them, since you now can separate the applications from the network provider. This is a *very* big deal.
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      - dorpus, 11 Dec 2003 @ 5:13pm
        
        Re: MCI Math
        That would be a change from the last time I heard of VoIP, when people had to buy specific software (shareware or retail), the software didn't talk to each other, you had to get some 10 or 20-digit number, the voice quality was choppy or got the order of syllables mixed up.
        
        What about the audio/video chat capabilities of software like MSN messenger? Does that count as VoIP, or is that considered something else?
        
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- alternatives, 11 Dec 2003 @ 11:43am
  
  Do you actually KNOW anything about VoIP?
  voip makes no sense.
  
  Really?
  
  Companies already have:
  
  1) Computers on the desk
  2) Wire to the computers
  3) Sound cards
  
  Adding Open Source VoIP ($0 cost) software and a headset ($5 to $9.95 at Wal*Mart) turns the PC into a 'telephone'.
  
  Benefits:
  
  Call logging
  Call-database intergration
  Call recording 'for quality control' (evidence)
  
  The 'make everyone else buy software' also shows your total lack of knowledge. Using standards like H.323 and SIP means as long as you are standards compliant, the software can interoperate.
  
  As opposed to "your solution" - a $300 phone that sits on the desk.
  
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- Damon Hopkins, 29 Feb 2004 @ 1:38pm
  
  Re: MCI Math and VOIP
  I work as a contractor installing VOIP services for our local cable customers. They don't need anything other than a special cable modem, (which we provide), and a phone jack to tie into their existing lines. all the existing phones in the house still work and the only differences anyone has noticed is better sounding calls, due to the higher signal to noise ratio versus standard phone circuits. There is no need for "special software" or special phones or even a computer really (although it is a cable modem we are installing) I guess none of you have real experience w/ what good VOIP can do.
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