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The Internet Technology

Qwest & Cablevision Launch VoIP Service 109

Posted by timothy from the because-data-is-fungible dept.
securitas writes "Qwest announced that it will be the first RBOC to offer VoIP service to its customers, starting with Minnesota. Not to be outdone, Cablevision launched VoIP service for its '1 million high-speed Internet customers in the lucrative New York market.' Cablevision's Tom Rutledge said the company plans to take advantage of last Monday's FCC local-number portability ruling that lets customers keep their phone numbers when switching service providers. Qwest plans to challenge the local-number portability ruling. It looks like the disruptive technology hype that surrounded VoIP in the late-1990s is about to see its first real litmus test."
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Qwest & Cablevision Launch VoIP Service More

Qwest & Cablevision Launch VoIP Service

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  • suprise (Score:2, Insightful)

    by wastedimage ( 266293 )
    What a suprise..When will companies learn that lawsuits are not the best way to deal with new technology...

    • Adaptation (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Etherwalk ( 681268 )
      Adaptation is the best way to deal with new technology. Lawsuits are just a way for companies to try to cover their behind until they either understand or are ready for the need to adapt.

    • Corporate logic (Score:5, Insightful)

      by WegianWarrior ( 649800 ) on Monday November 17, 2003 @09:01AM (#7492373) Journal

      If you can't beat them, sue them!

      Seriously thought, VoIP isn't a new thing. I myself use it frequently to talk to my fiancee in the US - as I've have broadband I don't pay any extra to call her, and as she don't pay for local calls* she don't have to pay anything either. The option - picking up my phone and dial her number - would cost me a staggering 9 cents a minute, as well as gobbling up her 'long distance minutes'** (I would have to use her mobile phone; as much as I like my motehr in law, I don't want her to be able to listen in, and as the phone is in the kitchen...). I'm happy to see that the US is taking up numberportability thought - somethign we've enjoyed for years now. The next step they are introdusing here seems to be the ability to take your number along even if you move from one end of the nation to the other.

      _*) This is the one issue which I think the US telecomsystem is better than the norwegian one.
      **) What kind of idiot decided that _you_ should pay when someone calls you? As long as y'all accepts that, you'll be getting screwed bigtime by your telcos.

      • Re:Corporate logic (Score:5, Informative)

        by twisty7867 ( 542048 ) on Monday November 17, 2003 @10:23AM (#7492641) Homepage
        Ah, but you have a contradiction there. The reason we pay to receive calls on mobile phones is that we don't pay for local calls. There really isn't a practical way for an end user to distinguish between the number for a landline phone and the number for a mobile phone here in the US. In fact, starting next Monday, you'll be able to port landline numbers to mobile phones (which I plan to do immediately). If I remember right, in Europe, mobile numbers all have certain prefixes, so that when you call someone, you know you will be charged extra because it's a mobile number. Here in the US, we have never really had that (some cell providers were known to use specific number blocks, like Sprint PCS and 99x numbers), and with the newest rules on porting your number, there will be absolutely no difference - what was a landline number this week could be a cell number next week.
      • ummm
        incoming calls dont get charged long distance minutes
      • What kind of idiot decided that _you_ should pay when someone calls you? As long as y'all accepts that, you'll be getting screwed bigtime by your telcos.

        Its b/c they're using homogonised phone numbers. Ie cell phones don't have their own dialing code like the UK (which uses 07###), for all intensive purposes a cell number is the same as a land line in the US. A caller wouldn't know if they were calling a cell phone and wouldn't know if they would incur extra charges. It was deemed unfair the the person

        • Re:Corporate logic (Score:1)

          by Anonymous Coward
          INTENTS AND PURPOSES.
          intents and purposes.
          INTENTS AND PURPOSES.
    • When will companies learn that lawsuits are not the best way to deal with new technology...

      Seriously. Actually, now that this is hitting closer to home for more Americans - (Remember, Joe Sixpack doesn't care that Diebold is suing people to prevent them from saying they suck; nor does he care about some Russian guy arrested by Adobe) - more people will realize that companies will just automatically sue instead of doing something to fix the problem Hopefully these frivolous lawsuits will be brought to th

  • If you can't beat it, sell it.

  • The apparent trend in the industry (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 17, 2003 @08:54AM (#7492345)
    The consulting firm that I work in has been observing the ebbs and flows in the VoIP market for the last 12 years, ever since Corel released "RemoteSpeak" has trial version in Newfoundland, Canada. At the time the quality of the data was fairly poor due to latency in the early stages of the Internet (certain conversation were packed in taped and shipped to Oceania for instance) but it showed some great promise in the BBS world of FidoNet.

    We are now agressively working towards a partnership with AvenTail to compete with Netscreen and Cisco. Our goal is to make phone access a commodity; we will target the content of the phone conversations as a potential revenue source or provide it as medium for advertisers. Our initial research showed that people were willing to tolerate commercials of certain amount of length in return for crystal-clear free (or very inexpensive) long-distance calls.

    We have the product and with some luck we'll be able to get the cooperation of smaller CLECs in the mid-western area for a pilot.

    Which is nice.

    • Re:The apparent trend in the industry (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Our initial research showed that people were willing to tolerate commercials of certain amount of length in return for crystal-clear free (or very inexpensive) long-distance calls.

      oh boy, here it comes. Telemarketing's last revenge.

    • Re:The apparent trend in the industry (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Your research is WRONG. pop up ads don't work on the web, the certainly will not work on a voice call. Maybe I should patent 'voice pop unders' so x10 can't use them.....

      I would rather pay $0.02/minute for my LD voice instead of listening to a 30 second ad everytime I wanted to make a call. My time is worth MUCH more that $0.02/minute

      If your business plan is truly based on advertising, I recommend you learn how to say 'Would you like fries with that?'
      • While the second half of your post is just a troll, the first half actually makes an attempt to be credible, even though you're misinformed:

        Your research is WRONG. pop up ads don't work on the web, the certainly will not work on a voice call. Maybe I should patent 'voice pop unders' so x10 can't use them.....

        How would pre-call advertising be labeled as a pop-up ad? It's not an advertisement IN THE MIDDLE OF THE CALL.

        What he describes is like Moviefone, people call in and listen to ads before they can g
    • Our initial research showed that people were willing to tolerate commercials of certain amount of length in return for crystal-clear free (or very inexpensive) long-distance calls.

      I have bad news about the BBS world of FidoNet too.

    • we will target the content of the phone conversations as a potential revenue source or provide it as medium for advertisers

      I read this as "we will listen in on your conversation for keywords and then but in with targeted advertising", am I wrong?

      I can just see it now, I pick up the phone to make a call after my housemate gets off and hear "We've heard you're interested in herpes, would you like to try the new medication wart-b-gone?"
    • That sort of rings a bell, I seem to remember a William Gibson novel where the same sort of system was in place. In order to pay for long distance calls advertisements were inserted into the conversation. The catch was that the more expensive the call, the more frequent the ads would be, so on an extreme long distance call the callers would be shouting to each other franticly trying to squeese their conversation in between the ads.
    • so lets get rid of phone calls during dinner advertising crap we don't want, and just get built in ads every time we pick up the phone! woo!

  • 911 (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Davak ( 526912 ) on Monday November 17, 2003 @08:55AM (#7492349) Homepage
    Anybody know how VoIP 911 access works?

    Does it link your number (ip?) with your address?

    I think 911-protection is keeping a lot of us from switching...

    Maybe now that we can transfer our phone number... we'll soon be able to transfer our 911 protection as well.

    Davak

    • Re:911 (Score:4, Insightful)

      by gl4ss ( 559668 ) on Monday November 17, 2003 @09:00AM (#7492371) Homepage Journal
      well.. i wouldn't trust it for 911 access.

      but any old cellphone(with working battery) will do for that(at least here, any gsm phone from the last 10y can be used for for emergency numbers, no need to have a sim card either).

      .
      • 911 from any phone in the US will pretty much work. The problem that people have with cell phones and the 911 service is it is pretty difficult to know where your call will be routed. If I call 911 in California with my cell phone that has an NJ area code, who gets the 911 call? NJ State Police or California Highway Patrol?

        • Re:911 (Score:3, Informative)

          by gl4ss ( 559668 )
          there's no problem with that.
          the call centre that is closest to the cell your phone is using at the moment gets the call. satellite phones might be bit more problematic in this sense though.

    • we'll soon be able to transfer our 911 protection as well.

      Can you explain what this means? I know 911 is your emergency telephone number for the police etc., but what do you mean by "transfer our 911 protection"?

      • Re:911 (Score:4, Informative)

        by RevMike ( 632002 ) <revMike&gmail,com> on Monday November 17, 2003 @10:02AM (#7492556) Journal
        Can you explain what this means? I know 911 is your emergency telephone number for the police etc., but what do you mean by "transfer our 911 protection"?

        In most areas of the US, dialing 911 will connect you to a local police/fire/ambulance dispatcher. The 911 system reports your incoming phone number to the dispatch computer system, and it automatically brings up your address at the dispatcher's computer screen.

        If you were to call 911, and could not stay on the line to speak to the dispatcher (perhaps you dialed while having a dizzy spell then passed out, or perhaps a criminal took the phone from you and hung up) the police will be dispatched to your home. Most every parent of a toddler has had the experience of the police coming to their door after the child has been playing with the phone.

        When you are using a mobile technology, your protection is reduced. If you call 911 from a cell phone and don't stay on the line, the police have no way of determining your exact location. The probably know that you are within a few square mile area around the base station that received the call, but that is all.

        Likewise, some of the VoIP carriers such as vonage [vonage.com] can't determine your location either. You can take your vonage unit and plug it into any broadband internet connection anywhere in the world and call jsut as if you were in your house. Vonage offers a rudimentary 911 service that requires you to update your location, so that vonage can route a 911 call to the correct dispatcher.

    • Your phone provider knows where you're located geographically, so I'm sure it's really not very difficult to implement.

    • Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Monday November 17, 2003 @09:16AM (#7492413)
      Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • It isn't really "911." (Score:5, Informative)

      by Justen ( 517232 ) * on Monday November 17, 2003 @09:19AM (#7492427) Homepage Journal
      Vonage and most of the other consumer-oriented VoIP providers offer a forwarder which hopefully connects you with emergency services when you dial 911 from your handset.

      You almost always have to enable the service, after you've signed up, by providing a real physical address to your house. The service provider then determines your nearest Public Safety Answering Point (called PSAPs), which is what operators used to do when you dialed "0" and said "HELP!"

      This is not the typical "911 Center" that most people would think it is, and they don't automatically have your address when you call. You'll likely have to state what type of emergency you have, wait on hold, and then provide them with your address.

      Beyond all of this, Vonage, in particular, highly advises you to not depend on their 911 service. An outage on their behalf, upstream from them, of your broadband, or of your electricity would eliminate your ability to dial 911 from your Vonage service. There are many weak links in that chain, and they're smart to tell you so.

      I read earlier that someone suggested picking up a wireless phone that has good signal but isn't subscribed to any particular service. Cell phones almost universally will dial 911 if they can, subscribed or not. (Double-check that, though.) There again, though, remember they'll likely not have your physical address.

      All that said, if you have some higher-than-average-reason to need 911 services, I'd not depend on anything but an ILEC landline. (Even CLECs tend to save money by ditching the E911 tandem, which, even though unlikely, could cause a problem.)

      justen
      • I read earlier that someone suggested picking up a wireless phone that has good signal but isn't subscribed to any particular service. Cell phones almost universally will dial 911 if they can, subscribed or not. (Double-check that, though.) There again, though, remember they'll likely not have your physical address.

        Even worse, in Minnesota it's been the source of more than one newspaper article that 911 on cell phones goes the State Highway Patrol dispatcher, not the the local 911 service. I don't know i
        • E911 here wasn't implemented until recently - instead, the front of the phone book listed Fire, Police, and Ambulance numbers for each town, and each of those organizations also distributed stickers designed to be placed on phones of the same numbers.

    • Re:911 (Score:2, Funny)

      by dollar70 ( 598384 )
      I think 911-protection is keeping a lot of us from switching...

      Define "a lot". I personally wouldn't switch unless I could realize meaningful cost savings, and would not sacrifice reliability. Quite frankly, I don't consider any home computer to be reliable simply because it has to broad a range of tasks.

      If I didn't have 911, I could just as easily tape a list of important numbers to my phone, or program them into the phone's memory.

      • Fire - 555-BURN
      • Police - 555-OINK
      • Medical - 555-
      • If I didn't have 911, I could just as easily tape a list of important numbers to my phone

        Let's hope when you hear your neighbor shouting "Oh God he isn't breathing" from the street at 2:17 AM, you can be calm enough to walk into the other room to find the one phone you taped this set of numbers on -- and you haven't worn the numbers off in your daily use so that you can't read them in the dim light without the glasses you can't find. When I heard that voice, I was damn glad it was just 911.

        911 is the m

    • It connects to the same public emergency switchboard that you reach via cell phone 911. However, there may be extended information available with some quick digging as you must register your physical address of the number you will be dialing from and it must be confirmed as valid. Consult the FAQs or customer service number of the service you are considering for the best details as always.

      Until then however, your 911 is not activated and you must wait for a confirmation email once you do register confirm

    • Re:911 (Score:3, Informative)

      by interiot ( 50685 )
      911 works with Vonage [vonage.com]. Because you can choose a number in any of their area codes they support (potentially a thousand miles from where you really live), they ask for your real physical location on setup so they know where to route your 911 calls to. You can still, for instance, take your VoIP box with you on vacation and use it if a hotel has broadband access, but your 911 calls will still get routed back home unless you tell them you've moved your main location somewhere else.

      Packet8 doesn't support [packet8.net]

    • Actually...
      There is no reliable way to link an IP to physical locatoin in a halfway decent amount of time.

      There is a number of projects, such as this [uiuc.edu] one(there are many better projects out there, but this was one of the first I googled.)

      You can generally get an area, but not with certain ranges, and certainly not specific addressing without either a re-write of a majority of hte structure of the internet, or mass forced cooperation with isps(would this even be feasible?)

      I see 911 service in the fut
    • This was one of the issues with VoIP

      Whether or not the suppliers of VoIP would be required to abide by the same restrictions as the normal phone companies, including having operators, having emergency #'s, etc.

      Since the federal ruling was they dont have to follow these rules (see link in original post), they likely dont have to supply 911 services.
    • Oh, and don't bother calling 911 any more...here's the real number (hands over a card with "912")

    • Re:911 (Score:3, Informative)

      by GreenKiwi ( 221281 )
      I think 911-protection is keeping a lot of us from switching...

      Just keep your existing land line connected. You won't have any regular service on it, but it will still give you 911.

    • Anybody know how VoIP 911 access works?

      I just got a vonage IP phone and couldn't be happier.

      911 works like this. You have to manually submit your address for 911 service. Usually takes a day for the 911 records to be updates. After that, 911 works exactly the same as POTS.
    • I've answered this question before, so I'll do it again ... the FCC mandates that local telcos provide FREE 911 access on copper lines. Basically, if you get VoIP service, and disconnect your copper line phone, keep a copper phone plugged into the line. Even though you won't be paying for service, you'll still have a dial-tone and will still be able to dial 911.

    • Re:911 (Score:2)

      by Servo ( 9177 )
      I have Vonage, which now supports 911 calling. What you do is register the address to tie to the number. It doesn't tie it to your *actual* location, so it calls a regional 911 center and they have your name and address on hand, just as if you were calling a local E911 center tied to your town or city.

      Since I only use it at home, this arrangement is perfectly fine for me. If you travel around and use your VoIP phone from multiple locations, then it isn't going to give you appropiate levels of 911 servic

  • Telcos Win? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by binaryDigit ( 557647 ) on Monday November 17, 2003 @08:59AM (#7492368)
    Has VOIP missed it's window of opportunity thanks to the continued proliferation of cell phones and favorable calling plans? Both my wife and I have unlimited long distance built into our cellular plans which eliminates one of the biggest "plus's" for VOIP (international calling not withstanding). So for us, VOIP is an utter non-issue. A few years ago, it would have been since we both have family scattered about the US that we called frequently. And with unlimited night/weekend minutes and scads of "plain ole minutes", it makes it even less compeling.

    So have the telcos won due to the long gestation period of wide spread VOIP. Other than international callers, or those who shun cell phones, what reason would one have for going with VOIP. Personally the one thing that keeps me attached to my land line, is more of the "comfort" of having such an old tried and true technology around "just in case" (redundancy good). That and it still serves as the "family" phone number for inbound calls. And with cellular home distribution gadgets coming online, even that use will slowly be eliminated.

    • Re:Telcos Win? (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Certainly not. While it is true that VOIP will not replace phones overnight, I seriously doubt that it's 'too late'. The potential uses of voip in comparison to other means will always be large enough to make changes worthwhile. I personally am waiting for the day that all of electronic devices with built in network access have the potential to be a communications device.

    • Re:Telcos Win? (Score:2, Insightful)

      by AKnightCowboy ( 608632 )
      Has VOIP missed it's window of opportunity thanks to the continued proliferation of cell phones and favorable calling plans? Both my wife and I have unlimited long distance built into our cellular plans which eliminates one of the biggest "plus's" for VOIP (international calling not withstanding).

      Really? What provider? I'd wager your "unlimited long distance" just means it doesn't cost you anything except your normal local minute charge. That's where the phone companies are raping us these days. Gon

      • When are cell companies going to offer $20/month unmetered calling 24/7?

        Weeee-lllll, if you're lucky enough to live in Vancouver BC, you've got a cell company offering US$29.93 (exchange rate of the moment on C$40.00) unmetered calling 24/7 right NOW. So pony up the extra $9.93 and live large, big guy.

        http://www.cityfido.ca/

    • Re:Telcos Win? (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Tazzy531 ( 456079 )
      The revenue for these TelCos from Mr. and Mrs Smith is pocket change compared to the revenues from corporate entities. No matter what, companies still need to have telephones. By offering companies this VOIP service, these companies may be able to win over some business from the baby bells, et al.

      I just had a thought.. A large company usually buys a lot bigger bandwidth than it actually uses for the "just in case" periods. I wonder if there's a technology out there that will switch between VOIP to POT
      • I wonder if there's a technology out there that will switch between VOIP to POTS and/or back again when the available bandwidth crosses a threshold.

        This would be kindof pointless. VOIP streams are small, so a large company would have to have a lot of POTS lines to use as a backup, negating the cost savings of VOIP. The excess bandwidth is cheaper than excess telephone lines.
        • What I meant was that a large company as of now, without VOIP will buy excess bandwidth than their daily usage. Typically, corporate entities use on an average day 25-30% of their available bandwidth. They've already paid for much of it and it's just sitting there sucking up money.

          You're right that they'd probably need lots of POTS lines as backup. But by routing the calls through VOIP, they eliminate/reduce the long distance charges. So basically the point here is, maximize the use of current resour
    • Check the hours for those unlimited nights and weekends. For me, in the NY metro area, nights start at 9pm. That means I'm burning minutes between the time I get home at 5:30 and 9pm. That's why I keep using my land line.
    • Unlimite calling may be the most obvious advantage, but there are several major advantages to VoIP through places like Vonage, Packet8, VoicePulse, etc:
      • Cheaper... unlimited local and national calling is only $22.50 (that includes all the extra taxes/addon fees) [packet8.net] (though the FCC might add on extra charges next year)
      • A lot of current features (caller ID, caller ID block, calling other lines if you don't pick up your VoIP phone) that seem like they don't cost the phone company anything, actually are free [vonage.com]
      • Th

  • Local-number portability gotcha (Score:3, Interesting)

    by joelparker ( 586428 ) <joel@school.net> on Monday November 17, 2003 @09:03AM (#7492382) Homepage
    It's great to see these VOIP offerings.
    But if you use local-number portability,
    then something with your VOIP doesn't work,
    you may not be able to switch things back.

    Or am I missing something here?

    Cheers, Joel

  • First? (Score:3, Informative)

    by genka ( 148122 ) * on Monday November 17, 2003 @09:24AM (#7492448) Homepage Journal
    It is not clear, if this will be a service offered directly to consumers, or wholesale deal with phone card companies- which Verizon has offered for years [verizon.com].

    • Re:First? (Score:3, Interesting)

      by truthsearch ( 249536 )
      I live in the NY metro area and last week got an offer from Cablevision to add VOIP to my broadband access. They just replace the cable modem with another that supports it. It's a direct offer from Cablevision's OptimumOnline department.

  • VoIP and Qwest (Score:3, Interesting)

    by I-R-Baboon ( 140733 ) on Monday November 17, 2003 @09:41AM (#7492503)
    I am glad to hear the propagation of VoIP with a cable company. This is the type of tie in that is required with responsibility of the used lines for a service to show the public reliability. Additionally this may be the key to getting standard 911 working as it does over the POTS and ease the concerns of some in switching and saving the almighty dollar. However, this also has a downside equal to the involvement of Qwest in this whole mess. Once you start getting these giant corporations involved...won't we get pulled back into paying the right to use us taxes and other fees required to make sure that hard working CEO gets their oh so needed 5.7 million dollar holiday bonus? On the same token, the major restrictions in place for POTS network such as no international calling and other restrictions and absurdities such as your calling list must all be victims of the major coroporation's service as well for you to take advantage of their plan of the month. Call me paranoid...but why can't Qwest offer these services through their POTS? Who is footing any loss of profits for them losing focus on their POT network? Somebody has to be taking the hit somewhere.

    This is still a new growing alternative communication technology which is correctly making use of a global connection as everything is fated to do. Cell phones already make use of this and research is working on a better computer to do this and really harness the power of the internet intelligently. I hope major corporate players who seem to have a tendacy to stiffle the competition and development of new technologies in the name of business do not destroy what is shaping to be a very good thing. True, the heavy hand of the government will get involved fiscally for their cut but we should all keep an eye on how corporate giants will try to abuse VoIP and brandish the tools they purchased in congress such as the DMCA.

  • Actually..... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by just some computer j ( 594460 ) on Monday November 17, 2003 @10:06AM (#7492569) Journal
    This isn't new. I worked for a company here in Kansas City that was doing basicly VoIP three years ago. The customer didn't need a special phone or anything. The company ran their own fiber and heavy coax in the city, the CPE stuff was pretty basic, and was very reliable. It worked much like this:
    From the cable node or repeater on the telephone pole behind someone's house a new cable was ran (This isn't some Time Warner thing). Then the customer gets a new box put on the back of their house, the NID. The NID did all the frequency splitting and stuff, and has an IP address in it. All we had to do was hook up the already exsisting cable lines that were in the house and telco lines to the NID, and you had VoIP. You even got high speed internet access.
  • Qwest was never an RBOC, will never be an RBOC, and the notion that they ever were an RBOC is laughable at best.
    • Well, considering that they bought out USWest, infrastructure and all, they can be considered to be "the RBOC formerly known as USWest". When I was with a certain long distance phone provider a few years ago, it was well known that dealing with Qwest on either long distance OR local was frustrating and oftentimes fruitless, but they were definitely on the RBOC list.

      The only company more irritating to deal with was (at the time) Bell Atlantic.
    • qwest certainly provide some semblance of a local phone service here in Oregon. that is, if your expectation of a phone service is based on previous experience in a former communist state or region undergoing extended civil war.

      What always irritates me is that their on-line billing system shuts down on weekend evenings. That is right, you cannot pay your bill from 8pm saturday. Now I know I should be going out and having fun on a saturday, but sometimes I dont, and on those days I'd like to pay my phone bi
    • Qwest was never an RBOC, will never be an RBOC, and the notion that they ever were an RBOC is laughable at best.

      Qwest (which bought USWest) is at least as much an RBOC (Regional Bell Operating Company) as Verizon (formed by the merger of BellAtlantic and GTE) and SBC (PacificBell, Nevada Bell, Southwestern Bell and Ameritech).

  • Litmus test (Score:1, Offtopic)

    by jyoull ( 512280 )
    I really hate that hackneyed phrase "litmus test". Do you even know what it means?

    This is a pretty good definition:
    "A test that uses a single indicator to prompt a decision"

    So there cannot be a "first litmus test". There is merely "a litmus test" and it's either "yes" or "no" and you're outta there.

    Why not just write "... the disruptive technology hype that surrounded VoIP in the late-1990s is about to see its first real test." ?

    thank you and have a nice day.

  • VOIP and ADT ??? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by dloolb ( 159254 ) on Monday November 17, 2003 @10:10AM (#7492591) Homepage
    Does anyone know if VOIP will allow ADT and other home security systems to still function properly, ie., calling out in an emergency and calling out for routine system checks?

    Anyone have Vonage and ADT together?

    • Re:VOIP and ADT ??? (Score:2, Informative)

      by I-R-Baboon ( 140733 )
      I cannot see why not, as long as you have your security system routed to your phone switch and you have an internet connection. If memory serves they usually just splice the red and green wires into the master panel but a simple RJ-11 termination would allow connection to a standard outlet. Security systems also can be equipped to use cell phone technology to make the connection as it is usually dead obvious where the phone line has been run to the system or where to cut it on the main panel box. I have
    • Does anyone know if VOIP will allow ADT and other home security systems to still function properly, ie., calling out in an emergency and calling out for routine system checks?

      Most VOIP will allow for 9600 or 14.4k calls (to support FAX), so it will probably work with modems. I know my DTV box works, and I've made 9600 bps data calls before.

      But that's NOT how you want your alarm system connected. You really want GPRS or CDPD (being phased out) wireless data service where available. Most nicer alarm s

  • Super .. (Score:4, Funny)

    by jason.mitchell ( 711646 ) on Monday November 17, 2003 @10:18AM (#7492616) Homepage
    Now my cable modem will be even more slower :) Great.

  • Not Geeky Enough - more Tech info (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    This conversation needs to take a geekier turn: what equipment vendor are they using, I see they are using Cisco for some of it. Any details on the handsets or configurations, etc?
  • Raucus Booty On Campus?


    Doesn't everyone know all the acronyms?
    • Regional Bell Operating Company, same thing as an ILEC (Incumbant Local Exchange Carrier). AT&T was split up into many different local phone companies, and then they all merged back together, so there are only four now: Qwest, Verizon, BellSouth and SBC. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if two of those merged within the next decade.
  • With this move, it seems that the existing cable industry *wants* to be labeled a telecommunication service. Quick! Somebody go tell the Ninth Circuit Court that it was right before it's too late!

  • Number Portability Key (Score:3, Insightful)

    by schnarff ( 557058 ) <alex.schnarff@com> on Monday November 17, 2003 @11:02AM (#7492831) Homepage Journal
    Having number portability would be a *huge* boon to VoIP. I was signed on with Vonage for a year, and intended to make it my primary phone when I signed up...but the fact that at the time I couldn't get a number with a local area code (and this in the Washington, DC area, too, not some tiny town in South Dakota) killed that in a hurry.

    Of course, a larger part of the problem for VoIP solutions is that most of them are now being sold as an add-on to your existing telco service, something that's great for free long distance. With long distance costs falling like they are, though, unless VoIP providers can start acting as CLECs -- in other words, you buy their service, your phone needs are taken care of completely -- I doubt if many VoIP companies will survive. Though I'm not sure how this will happen as long as you have to provide a phone number before you can get broadband hooked up...
  • i know this is way off-topic, but i just want to say thanks for posting this article because my cell phone bill is due today and i would have completely forgotten about it. thanks tim!

  • Lucky for me, I live in Minnesota and Qwest is our phone provider. Unlucky for me, Qwest is a bunch of a~~holes who provide DSL in my area, but just not at my house. Not only that, but half the time, it sounds like I'm talking on a cell phone in a tunnel. It gets really scratchy, and sometimes dial-up doesn't even work. On one hand, I want it to fail, because I hate Qwest. On the other hand, I want it to succeed because it'll make VoIP bigger than it is now. Decisions, decisions...

    incripshin

    • Unlucky for me, Qwest is a bunch of a~~holes who provide DSL in my area, but just not at my house.

      This is not because they're assholes; it's the nature of the technology. If the copper loop from their CO to your house happens to be longer than 15,000 feet (the length of wire, not distance as the crow flies), there's a good chance you'll have a variety of problems from time to time, and it's just not economically feasible to try to provide you access. If they tried, they would almost certainly lose a lot
  • 1. Get broadband. 2. Buy X-Box and Live V2. 3. Make free VOIP phone calls. 4. ???? 5. Profit.
  • Just to clarify ... Qwest isn't first. Time Warner has been offering VoIP in the Portland, Maine area for at least a year now. TW probably has VoIP service in other areas as well.

  • Does anyone else remember a few weeks ago when Vonage & friends got screwed in Minnesota over taxes? The courts in Minn. ruled that VOIP's could be taxed & fee'd the same way that phones are. So there's your answer to why Qwest waited until now, and why they're doing it in Minnesota. All about the dollars, yo. -wd
  • Let me tell you a bit about Cablevision. I am, after all, a customer of theirs. This company cannot do anything right. Several years ago they upgraded most of their infrastructure to fiber optics and tried to sell "enhanced" cable TV service under the name of "Optimum IO". If you had a low-end cable TV plan this upgrade would only cost you another $10 per month PLUS another $3 per month for each cable box. Of course, other than HBO and a few sports channels, the regular cable "Family" package already c

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