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Sprint Moves Phone Network to IP

Posted by timothy on from the all-the-rage dept.

Ryan Barrett writes "Sprint announced that it has 'begun transforming its telephone network so voice calls are transmitted in packets.' AP article here. Combined with a recent /. story about Telus doing the same thing, this sets an interesting precedent. Many telcos already use packet-switching to handle a significant chunk of their calls. Is this the beginning of the end for circuit-switched networks?"

5 of 212 comments (clear)

  1. More like the middle of the end by tgma · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The beginning of the end started when the equipment manufacturers started producing boxes that allowed VoIP calls to have the same quality as circuit-switched ones. We all probably make a lot more IP calls than we are aware of.

    The quicker companies do this, the better it will be for their margins - this news from Sprint probably doesn't mean much for their users, but their shareholders should be happy. The cost of carrying VoIP is much lower, which is what allows those calling card companies to stay in business.

  2. About Freaking time by zakezuke · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Part of my major complaint in the 21century is the fact that modem technology has not really improved a whole hell of alot. Sure we have Cable and xDSL service if you are lucky enough to live near a place where they saw fit to actually upgrade.

    When I see stuff like this, I get this warm happy feeling inside when it seems like it's actually a *good* idea to actually upgrade from our old vintage phone system to something that can do a hell of alot more useful things. Datapackets can be uniquely identified as "voice" "fax" or "data", which could in theory make a whole slew of things possible...

    Though it makes me wonder, if the telcos are going for packet based voice communications, why the hell would I bother placing a long distance call through them when I can use VoIP software. Don't get me wrong, i'll all for the idea digital packet based phone service, if for nothing else but making all phones with that service high speed internet ready.

    --
    There is no sanctuary. There is no sanctuary. SHUT UP! There is no shut up. There is no shut up.
  3. But will this benefit the consumer ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting


    Nice idea and all that but how will the consumer benefit from this ? will we get lower call charges or will the CEO just get another 5million on his paypacket ?

  4. Re:Ouch, now I have to remember IP addresses too by miu · · Score: 4, Interesting

    No need. E.164 number and DNS

    --

    [Set Cain on fire and steal his lute.]
  5. Re:IP?! Or ATM? Or something else? by richard_willey · · Score: 5, Interesting


    I beg to differ.

    Voice over IP is already standard part of corporate IT. It is rapidly leaking into the consumer space.

    Historically, Big Dumb Pipes have continually displaced managed bandwidth type systems. Voice over IP is just the latest example.

    I did a consulting project for Qualcomm as part of my classwork last semester studying whether 802.11b has the potential to disrupt CDMA networks. People might find the paper interesting, since it indirectly addresses many of the same issues.

    http://web.mit.edu/~rwilley/www/Qualcomm.pdf