VoIP And Cell Phones Eroding Traditional Telecoms 390
Lullabye_Muse writes "Yahoo! reports that telecoms in Europe and U.S. are losing in response to people switching their home phones for cellphones and dial up to cable modems. More info on specific VoIP discussed in latter part of article. The trend seems to becoming widespread, I guess 10 years and all the old wires are gonna start to be taken down."
A land-line...? (Score:5, Interesting)
I still keep my land-line operational, though... I'm beginning to wonder why.
Re:A land-line...? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:A land-line...? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:A land-line...? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:A land-line...? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:A land-line...? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:A land-line...? (Score:5, Interesting)
Personally I miss the days of 3-5watt analog cell phones. Range was about 10x what the little 800mW ones we carry around today. The networks are also about 10x more crowded. The reason they went to digital in the first place was just to get more people in the same amount of spectrum...
Re:A land-line...? (Score:5, Interesting)
$30 Unidens seem to work real well.
Re:A land-line...? (Score:4, Insightful)
When I wanted to get my home net connection, I had a choice between 5mb/1mb cable dsl or 3mb/0.5mb adsl - except that I would have had to also pay for a land line with adsl, so the faster cable connection is actually cheaper. It's a no-brainer (and my IP never changes with cable - an extra bonus for my home server).
Re:A land-line...? (Score:3, Interesting)
The other (more important) issue is that CableInternet+Cell costs a fair penny more than DSL+Landline.
Re:A land-line...? (Score:4, Interesting)
- I set apache to listen to port 8080 instead of port 80
- I use dyndns.org to give me between 1 and 5 free site names
- I set up apache to do named vhosting for each free site name
- I append the port# to any url, like this:
Benefits:- Faster downloading and uploading (2x the speed of Bell's fastest business adsl line) - I know, because I've got 2 Bell "extreme hispeed" business adsl lines at the office, and together they give me about the same speed I get at home with 1 cable line, at half the price.
- My IP never changes - whereas with the Bell adsl service, it changes (ir)regularly - some days it changes half a dozen times. I used to have the servers text my cell when the IP changes, but it was getting rediculous. So instead, I just dump important stuff on my home server.
- Freedom. I'm taking my dogs for a walk in a few minutes, and I'm bringing my phone. Can't do that with a land line.
- Staying in touch. I call my friends, family, and daughters when I'm waiting in line at the store, out, or whatever. And they can reach me any time also.
My cell works out to about $10 more a month than a land line with the same features (and I use it a LOT more than I would ever use a land line - I've done up to 3000 minutes some months)My cable connection is the same price as Bell's fastest service, but the cable connection is 25% faster, and it's always 5mbs/1mbs or better - when I overshoot it, I see them throttling me back to 5mb/1mb - they have LOTS of spare capacity, whereas some days the two business ultra-hi Bell connections just crawl...
Last month I had 160 gig of transfer on my home server, and it wasn't used THAT much. I was still able to surf, etc.
Also, the latency is a lot less with cable - makes everything seem quicker. If we could get cable at the office, we'd dump the 2 bell lines in a minute.
Re:A land-line...? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:A land-line...? (Score:2)
I hardly ever use my
Re:A land-line...? (Score:5, Informative)
however, any phone in the united states is required to permit 911 dialing at all times under all circumstances. if you truly only want the phone to work to dial 911, disconnect servce and leave the phones plugged in. in an emergency, pick it up and dial 911 - the call must go through or the phone company is in a lot of trouble.
you won't have a number, but you'll have what you want.
Re:A land-line...? (Score:5, Informative)
It depends how many lines the phone company has available in the central office. If there are many to spare, they will just do a "soft-disconnect" and leave the line live. Most of the time, somebody hooks it up again anyways, and they only have to do a software change to activate it again. Saves a lot of money.
Re:A land-line...? (Score:3, Informative)
There's always alternatives for emergencies. Any unactivated cellphone can still dial 911. And there's always payphones if it's close enough.
Re:A land-line...? (Score:3, Insightful)
when the mobiles get more popular expect the payphones to gradually disappear from the scene only to remain in places like airports.
that's what happened over here anyways..
Re:A land-line...? (Score:5, Informative)
We've been using roadrunner's digital phone service since day 1. $30ish for anywhere, anytime, no LD. Call waiting, etc.
We've had no problems with service until the last week. The cable/VoIP modem start cycling and trying to readjust over and over.
The guy came out and changed the modems. He said that it is very, very common.
So if you start losing VoIP service and your modem starts cycling... be quick to report it so they can change out your device.
I can blast huge torrents over suprnova and talk on the phone at the same time without any problems. I've been very impressed with the bandwidth... In fact, my impression is that my bandwidth greatly improved when they switched me over to VoIP. I imagine they uncap the bandwidth when you get digital phone service so insure both services work well together.
AC
Re:A land-line...? (Score:4, Interesting)
Hrm, my digital phone went out. Internet too. Weird. Oh well, I'll just pick up the phone and call the cable company so ..... oh, crap.
Enh, no big deal, I'll just dial in to the modem pool at work.
AT&F1
ATDT6175551234
NO DIALTONE
Oh, right. Crap.
Honestly, that's the single biggest reason for me to keep my landline. Redundancy. I want the ability to dial out if cable fails. Heck, with my laptop, I can even have connectivity in a power outage (yes, I've done this before). That and one of my friends got screwed by this when his digital phone service crapped out. He was complaining about it to me over IM and the fact that he couldn't even call to report it. Yes, yes, cell phones, but cell phone reception can be pretty crappy in large apartment buildings, and that doesn't help for connectivity, since cell modems are expensive.
Re:A land-line...? (Score:3, Insightful)
There's much more than a wire between your phone and the one you're calling. Your voice gets digitized at a switch fairly near your home, after which it's split into chunks so you can send multiple "lines" down the same fiber optic cable. Along the way, these packets of data go through other switching equipment that sends your voice to wherever it's going, possibly over many different links for load balancing and redundancy in case a backhoe operator digs somewhere s/he shouldn't.
Now, it seems to me the
Re:A land-line...? (Score:2)
Most creditors like to have a land-line number attached to our contact information as it's *generally* less frequently changed (only changes when you move, usually).
Also, if my cell battery dies, or the mobile phone itse
Re:A land-line...? (Score:2, Informative)
I will never get rid of mine until they develop a system where 911 can determine my location instantly in a emergency.
Also, what are you going to do when the power goes out? My landline still works with no power.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:A land-line...? (Score:5, Informative)
The idea is to save money; you have to run MUCH LESS copper, since EACH SUBSCRIBER PAIR doesn't have to go to the CO; it also enables DSL services for individuals who would otherwise be too far from the CO.
The problem: Unlike the CO, RT's don't have a backup generator. They only have batteries. So if there's a long-lasting power failure at the RT, you only get a few hours of battery backup before the RT runs out of juice, and all the local voice pairs coming out of it go dead. Sure, there's still light on the fiber coming from the CO, but what good does that do you?
Now, in a crisis, telcos actually have portable generators on trailers that they can haul out to RT's serving critical facilities, like hospitals. But unless your residence shares an RT with a hospital, don't count on getting more than few hours of continued service after the lights go out.
There's generally thousands of these RT's in areas where they're used; they don't have enough generators for all of them.
-Z
Re:A land-line...? (Score:2)
Oh well... (Score:2, Interesting)
Monopolies are not all bad (Score:5, Insightful)
Of course there comes a time when the monopoly no longer makes and it will fade out. Most customers will benefit but soome (eg. less profitable customers in outlying areas) will lose out.
Re:Monopolies are not all bad (Score:5, Insightful)
Monopolies aren't always bad, as you said. The problem with the way we see monopolies is that most of them take advantage of it to shaft the customer (on price, service, or anything else). It's when you mix monopolies with proffit motivations above all else that you get in real trouble. A benevolent monopoly can be good, as you said. Unfortunatly, I doubt we'll ever see benevolent monopolies (or even corporations) ever again. They just seem to get greedier and greedier.
Of course, in most situations, a nice open market if best.
Spot on. (Score:5, Insightful)
If i had the points i had last night, i'd mod you through the roof. This is the most insightful and true statement i've seen today.
i hate to be a defeatist, but fucking christ, who isn't trying to fuck you these days? It's not enough to have a chalet on some remote lake anymore is it? It's not enough to have 7+ figures in the bank is it?
i just grow more and more disheartened that there are no truly benevolent companies in monopolistic positions these days. i won't glorify the "good ol' days" and sure as hell, there were sharks in those days, but i can't help but feel that i'm getting fucked, about to get fucked, or have the research to realize that, yeah, i am getting fucked by some company.
Shit, maybe i'm just out of touch, but i'd hoped that by the age of 26 i'd not be so goddamn cynical and have to watch my back at every fucking turn....like maybe, just maybe, some corps just might give a fuck that i live to next year and buy the next edition. Know what i mean?
Fuck, i already sound like my grandfather and at least he got be 50 before he was an ass about everything.
Re:Spot on. (Score:3, Funny)
Its the future, things move faster now.
Monopolies ARE bad. (Score:3, Interesting)
Hahahaha! I take it you don't live in an outlying area.
My exchange was one of the last in NORTH AMERICA to be moved off an old switch that used in band signalling. While some might understand this provided much amusement in my youth, we didn't get private lines until about 1992 if I remember right. The line quality is BAD here.
Dispite millions? being promised and provided for broadband development in Ru
You were lucky! (Score:3, Funny)
Where I live we have to rub two sticks together to make a fire and then shear a passing sheep, spin the wool, weave it into a blanket and use that to make smoke signals to a passing ship asking them to drop off our message the next time they make port.
And you tell that to kids today and they just don't believe you!
Re:Monopolies are not all bad (Score:3, Interesting)
There were in this country two very large monopolies. The larger of the two had the following record: the Vietnam War, Watergate, double- digit inflation, fuel and energy shortages, bankrupt airlines, and the 8-cent postcard. The second was responsible for such things as the transistor, the solar cell, lasers, synthetic crystals, high fidelity stereo recording, sound motion pictures, radio astronomy, negative feedback, magnetic tape, magnetic "bubbles", electronic switching sys
Re:Oh well... (Score:2)
Good point. If they start losing money with subscribers, all they need to do to stay profitable is raise the rates that they charge the cellular providers to use the infrastructure. Maybe the cellular companies can even subsidize the phone company's promises to get me DSL in this decade! Or modem service that is better than 28.8 kbps!
DSL (Score:2, Interesting)
Good (Score:5, Funny)
Of course, cell-phone coverage could be bett--
CALL ENDED
Time: 2:10
Re:Good (Score:2)
Re:Good (Score:3, Interesting)
And looking at the rates for net access here... DSL: 256K: 26.00/mo. + landline: $30.00/mo. total price, 56.00/mo.
Cable?
3000k: 45.00/mo plus I get free basic cable...
Hmmmm....
Re:Good (Score:2, Funny)
*WHAT!*
*ARE YOU STILL THERE?*
Re:Good (Score:5, Funny)
He kept running into the lameness filter.
Never (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Never (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Never (Score:4, Informative)
I too was initially worried about emergency services and so forth, however all this stuff functions as normal with a regular land line. I can call 911, or 411 or whatever just like anybody else can. In the event of a power-outage you can have your service forward to a cell-phone, voice-mail, or even another regular land phone. So I'm really not that worried about it. In the event that the power goes out and the cell phone is dead, and I accidentally cut off my leg, thus disabling me from crawling to my neighbors house to use their land phone to call 911, I suppose I'll just have to suffer
Seriously though, here's my experience so far:
The Good
Cheap.
Works with regular phones, and it actually works pretty good.
Says #$&@ you to the local @*&!@ telco monopoly.
The Bad
Can't use your regular house phone jacks (although if you need a phone in every room you can get one of those multi-set cordless base phones).
The service isn't perfect. (A couple of times someone has called, and before I could pick it up, the system hung up on them). But let's be realistic, this is pretty new technology.
All in all, I'm happy I decided to try out the VoIP phone. It saves me $10-15 / month, and lets me call way more long distance to boot. And I'm a no frills user. No calling features, no call display, I don't really call long distance. For someone who has a big calling feature pack and calls long distance, I could see a VoIP phone saving them a TON of cash.
Re:besides, cell phones are $$ to use (Score:2, Interesting)
Wires taken down? Dont think so. (Score:2, Insightful)
Cost (Score:3, Insightful)
Add in the fee to get connected, if you move a lot you can save hundreds by having a cell phone.
Currently the long distance plan I have, it doesn't yet make sense to switch to a cell phone.
Re:Cost (Score:2)
Well for a start, I can be reasonably confident that I can pick up my phone and get a dial tone, whatever the atmospheric conditions. With my mobile, reception is patchy at best throughout the house, and is significantly affected by the weather. Plus I can't run ADSL over my mobile, unlike my fixed phone line.
Re:Cost (Score:2)
Re:Cost (Score:3, Funny)
Some people live in areas where the reception is either poor or non-existant. When I did tech support, I talked to every one of them.
Cringley (Score:3, Interesting)
Seems like a good idea, but there is no way the telcos could sit down and think of doing that. They just aren't that innovative. Otherwise, they'd have been on VoIP awhile ago.
Sounds like a great idea... (Score:2)
I like reading Cringely, but doesn't it seem like most of the cool
An Anchor is not a good thing (Score:2)
The traditional phone companies will have to add more hi-speed connections, maybe integrated with other services to survive.
Surprise surprise. (Score:5, Insightful)
Yet another example of innovation sweeping the market out from under an industry that's too busy screwing its consumers to notice.
Re:Surprise surprise. (Score:3)
Phones are a scam. It kills me that people are willing to pay $50 to more dollars a month for the things. To me its only worth about
Makes sense to me (Score:4, Informative)
For me, my job requires a mobile phone and they pay the bill. I'm not even home often enough to worry about having a land line.
I would have gotten one anyway, just for the security, but the phone company wants $80~ (US) to simply turn the bastard on.
Now, if the telecom industry was to try to lure me back, it would simply be with affordability.
I'm not even going to start on all the things I hate about the telecom service, but whats with charging not to have long distance? Someone tell me the logic in this one.
Re:Makes sense to me (Score:2)
Because my cellular phone essentially already includes my long distance charges I started using it even more then the home phone.
When I moved, I just couldn't justify the service being turned on.
Watching it happen... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Watching it happen... (Score:3, Informative)
Canadians can expect to have this convergance within 3 months, here's the
press release [www.shaw.ca] and heres an overview [tmcnet.com]
The technology was provided by Siemens with its SURPASS line of switches, and is really amazing. You'll be able to provision multiple lines, virutual PBX's and high ban
They should take advantage of this opportunity ... (Score:3, Insightful)
Contrary to most people think, the major Internet backbones are not anywhere near capacity. Telcos have NO shortage of bandwidth. Their problem is their inability to push the bandwidth people demand over analog copper lines. Fiber solves bandwidth problems and distance problems.
-DJ
A related question.. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:A related question.. (Score:2)
There are third party DSL providers, but they're basically renting the DSL portion of your line from the phone comany and and selling it back to you.
Worldcom is an MCI company, right? If you really feel a loyalty to them, or just don't want to change your e-mail address, it's possible they offer other options (cable?) in your area.
Or, just keep the land line and
Also in the news tonight... (Score:2)
Also in the news tonight, rain is still wet, leaves often grow on trees, and Guy Fawkes is still the only person to go into politics with honest intentions...
Sorry, just had to get that one out of the way... :)
Great, but... (Score:2)
Kind of like saying that the internal combustion engine offers so much mobility and personal choice that in ten years we'll be pulling up all the railroad tracks. Sure, it replaced a lot of rail traffic but we still need rail for mass transit and really heavy hauling (e.g. coal).
Re:Great, but... (Score:2)
A couple of possible problems with your reasoning:
Re:Great, but... (Score:2)
Do you really want the 911 receiver on wireless? The 911 stations are going to require the high-availability mandated by regulation. And wireless is very far from providing that.
Re:Great, but... (Score:2)
Re:Great, but... (Score:2)
Rail still hauls a lot of volume. If you think the 5 minute wait on a secondary road is bad, think about the delay the last time you got stuck behind an interstate truck accident when it's loaded with hazardous materials.
Re:Great, but... (Score:2)
Also in India (Score:2, Informative)
I dunno (Score:4, Informative)
Then again, it may be just the way my network is setup - seems like once or twice the problem has been with my firewall (Smoothwall) just 'locking up' during a 10+ minute long call.
All in all, if I can iron out these minor problems, I think it will be a lot nicer then a traditional landline, and the price is right. I'm just not at the phase where I trust it whole-heartedly, so I'm glad I have my cell as backup
Re:I dunno (Score:2)
The power company and upstream provider, well those are stories for another time.
Re:I dunno (Score:2)
Re:I dunno (Score:2)
What about DSL? (Score:5, Insightful)
What about DSL?
Not everyone will have FITL (fiber-to-the-curb), so the existing copper lines will still have a use.
Chip H.
Re:What about DSL? (Score:2)
Two disagreements (Score:5, Insightful)
Second, the "old wires" are not "gonna start to be taken down." There is a billion dollar infrastructure buried under the U.S. that's going nowhere. And a century of tweaking has made it rock solid. A new generation growing up on wireless phones won't appreciate the five nines of reliability that the PSTN provides, but most of the population is nowhere near ready to give up the phone line that stays up during power failures.
That said, the future is certainly IP based. The phone company knows that and will be well positioned to be the dominant provider. The RBOCs and the cable companies are the only players likely to survive in the broadband and IP-based future.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Two disagreements (Score:2)
finally the internet delays a trend (Score:3, Informative)
I'm quite sure that internet access is the main reason we still have so many home phones after all.
Cable isn't that widespread in Europe, satelite links are quite expensive and they require a telephone line for upload. Access via power lines never really took off. There is nothing which beats 2 copper wires running to your house in terms of speed, reliability and price.
Wireless LANs bringing internet access to entire blocks reduces the amount of home phones, since only one POTS is needed to get it online, but (at least over here) we won't see telcos going down the drain before ISPs are offering (cheaper than telco) area-wide wireless access for their services.
I don't need a home phone at all, but my favorite monopolistic telco offers me DSL for a reasonable price. They also charge me for a mandatory phone connection using the same line, but it's still much cheaper than their closest competitor.wires are for loosers (Score:2)
What's not to like? No more evil phone company, added features and a BIG savings.
I just don't see how the old school bells are going to survive, and frankly I don't care.
Boo Hoo... (Score:2)
Now, this may be a painful period for telcos, but I don't think they'll die off entirely. Even if you are using VoIP, you're getting internet access from somewhere, and it's almost certainly not from your cell towers.
So, what's the alternative to telcos for internet access? Cable companies are an option, but they tend to be quite terrible in many (most?) areas, so it's most likely that telcos will remain as the company with the
I *don't* have a landline phone anymore. (Score:5, Interesting)
We used to have cable modem and used 802.11b for the past few years. Now, we have a neighbor who has a wireless network called "Linksys" with no WEP key set. So, we don't pay for internet anymore either. I suppose the day they put a wep key on it or shut it down, I will order either cable or DSL (we actually can get either where we live.)
We still have to pay for our cell phones and for electricity, but we're saving like $200 a month without phone or broadband. (Math check: Our old cable company wouldn't sell us broadband without digitial cable and the total price was like $100 a month. Plus, phone bill including long distance since the cell phones wouldn't work from the house and all our relatives live in other states.)
Re:I *don't* have a landline phone anymore. (Score:3, Funny)
TimeWarner owns me now. (Score:5, Informative)
It reminded me of something that happened a few years ago at work.
We used to subscribe to a Derwent patent publication that listed new patents in the pharmaceutical industry. It costs about $30K a year. I called and asked if they could give us a little break on the price. "No Way," they said. So we cancelled the subscription. A few weeks later, they call up and said that there was a mistake and they could give it to us for only $800/yr. I said "No Way." Pricing in this information busness is funny stuff.
Imagine that (Score:4, Funny)
Nah. (Score:3, Informative)
I still need da phone line for my DSL. Cable is way too unreliable in my area. The folks that run it use dodgy amplifiers apparently. Phone line infrastructure was terribly expensive to put up and maintain, and it has lots of other uses (DSL etc). They will never tear it down voluntarily.
I'm not too confident (Score:3, Interesting)
The problem here is that right now I get my internet access from... SBC, same as my phone company. In a better world the ISPs would have a financial incentive to back VoIP against the phone companies' objections, and there could be a huge corporate battle ending up in consumer benefit. Doesn't really work when the ISP and the phone company are one and the same.
I guess Comcast (or your local internet-via-cable company) could start bundling VoIP with their broadband access, competing with the DSL people who already offer those bundles. Makes sense to me, although I still wish the providers of the services were different groups....
can't think any more... brain hurts... color scheme too ugly...
I know it's kind of pointless, but (Score:3, Interesting)
Like those people who run emulators within emulators within emulators, something like this would have a pretty high geek-chic factor.
LK
Re:I know it's kind of pointless, but (Score:3, Interesting)
Yup, and it works so-so.
You must use a codec that does not do any kind of compression or acoustic fanagling or it just won't work. I have been sending faxes in and out of our office (up to two at a time in either direction) for the last 3 months now without issue, so long as it only goes one hop to our PRI downtown. Faxes through our VOIP provider are spotty at best but we also have a Canon IR3300 fax machine as our primary fax device... they're the pickiest bitches known to the faxing industry.
Voice modems (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm actually surprised that voice modems haven't become popular and that answering machine capabilities haven't become standardised on computers the way faxing has. I've had modems that worked as answering machines before over the past decade, but the software was always a third-party application that wasn't integrated with the OS like faxing, and it never became one surprisingly. I presume the main reason for this is because people would tend to have a dedicated data line for the modem and have their voice lines separate. But I also think another reason is that people tend to use the voicemail of their mobile phones now more than answering machines.
With the popularity of broadband, dial-up modems on computers are simply becoming an option used more for faxes or for using a dial-up connection when the broadband connection is down. Macs used to support audio line-in from the modem port, but they dropped that feature for some reason, and it seems to have gone unnoticed. Having an audio line-in function for a dial-up modem would be a precursor to using it as an answering machine. One of the problems of having a fax is that people usually use a dedicated line for one rather than having the same number for both voice and fax. That's two phone bills, and there's no reason for it to be that way. I always thought that computers would merge voice, fax, and data into one phone line. But if you use a mobile phone for voicemail, then you won't be able to link it to your computer.
oldskool (Score:4, Funny)
Poor Poor Big Huge Companies... (Score:4, Insightful)
Now you think 'poor poor big company' because they're forced to service those remote areas and now they aren't getting the growth they have anticipated? WRONG...
These companies are not forced to stick to old technologies. They have decided to stick to technologies for as long as they can, but the telco company could be offering much better solutions to everyone but they were 'comfortable' with the situation. They wanted to milk the old technology for all it had. Instead of spending all the resources trying to install new technologies in everyone's homes, they were trying to squish the new technology. Remember all those attempts at lobbying for internet taxes and things? Those were attempts to make internet more expensive than typical communications so they wouldn't have to change their ways. Their thoughts were, "Why install new technology when we haven't made our projected return on your current technology?". The answer is obviously, "To save your company from being obsoleted by the companies installing the new technologies."
Telecomm is dead, long live the Telecomm (Score:3, Interesting)
What's great about this VoIP revolution is that this frees the phone number and service from the physical network. You buy the IP first, then connect your VoIP to it. And you can switch VoIPs and keep your number. Creating layers of technology each with different tasks opens up possibilities not seen before and will be a huge boob to the customer.
The telecomms won't be at the front, they aren't leaders, but they are never far behind. They'll charge a little more, try to buy up Vonage and the other companies, then consolidate into powerhouses again. Vonage might grow big enough to be a new telecomm, like T-Mobile and Cingular almost are.
My prediction is that it won't be until the NEXT revolution that small companies and mom and pop telecomms pop up and provide kickass service and competition. That revolution will be long range wireless networking.
bits want to reach people (Score:3, Interesting)
The whole "last mile to the user's home" issue is very soon guna become less and less of an issue with WiMAX and WiFi.
The city where i live just deployed [blogspot.com] free wifi internet access to most residents, with its reach to increase overtime.
IP is insanely powerful. Bandwidth is increasing, and compression algorithms are only getting better [apple.com].
I'm looking forward to a future where all consumer-telco, cable and satellite companies will be replaced by a large multitude of ISPs.
Wow... (Score:4, Insightful)
Cell phone are the intermediate future, and VoIP (in the real sense, not in the sense that they're still connected at all to the copper wires, but just connected to the real internet) or just plain Data over IP ('cos what else is Voice?) is the future.
Especially with wireless becoming cheaper and cheaper; what's gonna evolve is a free system of comms (wifi mesh, whatever) run by hobbyists, where the only role the telecoms are going to play is maintaining the fibreoptics between continents, large companies and cities which aren't easily connected by wireless (in all it's forms).
What's really surprising is that the telco's didn't see this coming: I have a friend who worked for the largest (formerly only) telco in the netherlands, and hwen I told him about this, his response was..."but....but...that's illegal!?". He really didn't understand the power of public airwaves...and he was in strategic planning too!
The only danger of course is that the telco's will lobby gov'ment to restrict private access to public bands....
New rules (Score:4, Insightful)
The old telecom companies are embracing this technology for several reasons:
The consumer wants to head this direction (anyone remember the age of passenger rail in the US?).
It is truly cheaper to provide this service, it's more efficient and may mean increased profitability.
They do know how to provide telephony and know that their customers will trust their offering.
They have not totally besmirched their name yet.
It has never cost telephone companies anything more to send a telephone call across the country or next door. The higher prices they were allowed (by governments) to charge for "long distance" were allowed to enable them to build their infrastructure. The higher prices we pay for cellular service reflects the need of cell phone companies to build out infrastructure so that they can serve their customers everywhere.
Now, telephone companies are finding that there is not just their infrastructure, but a whole new and cheaper infrastructure out there that was built without their investment. Some was paid for by the governments, some was paid for by private industry or other telephone companies. And they can use it -- free! Imagine the increases in profitability when you can sell a service that costs you little or nothing.
Here in the US, one of the reasons why VOIP from telecom companies is so cheap is because the playing field changed. They set up different companies for VOIP and cellular service and these companies don't have labor unions. So not only is the infrastructure cheaper, but labor is cheaper.
I note that BT immediately jumped on this bandwagon. They are, perhaps, the most hated company in the UK because they have held a monopoly for so long and refuse to bring pricing down to more sane levels in favor of keeping profits up. I kind of wonder at BT because they have generated a great deal of animosity in the public they "serve" in exchange for profits that are not visibly plowed into improved infrastructure.
Re:But... (Score:2)
I use Vonage, and one of the reasons is that it's much cheaper than telco service.
Re:But... (Score:2)
Re:Same wires! (Score:4, Informative)
And if you're actually in a CO, trying to trace a circuit between DSX panels, there's a fifth wire, the locator wire, wired in as part of the cross connect. It provides a neat function - when you insert a looping plug in the dsx, lights on both DSX panels come on to tell you where the circuit is.
Re:I miss ma bell (Score:5, Insightful)
The main advantage you now see from the breakup is competition, however feeble, and lower pricing.
Oh, and customer service has always sucked. It's not a new phenomenon.