Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

VoIP, WiFi and the Future of Traditional Telecom

Posted by michael on from the buzzword-enabled dept.

PetiePooo writes "Those of us in the telecom industry have been watching it wither and die in the past few years. Here's why. The Register has an article about the future of mobile communications using VoIP on WiFi. From the article: "... voice over IP would gradually come to be a prime driver of mobile Internet." VoIP has been considered by many for a while now to be the future of traditional telephony. Combining VoIP and WiFi makes a compelling argument for the convergence of voice and data services over a single platform. Here's a previous slashdot discussion on industry's efforts to make this happen."

3 of 92 comments (clear)

  1. Poon Tang by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    I'm going out to get some..

    Have fun discussing VoIP, WiFi, and telecom while I'm getting laid. Enjoy it, losers.

    Later, geeks.

  2. moron trying to make a call in the fewsure by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    hello

    # please

    555-byteme

    no, i'll need your m$poorsport #. we don't seem to have won for you.

    can't you just put the call through?

    no, not unless you complete the interrogatory to become a poorsport supporter.

    can i make the call on the web, without signing up?

    i hope not, i mean, it would be 'better' for you/US if uid just sighn up for the poorsport liesense.

    no thanks.

    we'll give you a house in malibu, & a telco of your very own, if you'll sighn up right now.

    no thanks.

    fauxking dissidents, we overhear now & then that your kind is scheduled for deletion.
    is that a threat?

    only if you don't sighn up for the liesense.

    we'll get back to you on that, after we see how the #'s goo DOWn if nowon sighns dupe.

  3. Why it's dieing... by sos22 · · Score: -1, Troll

    Essentially, straight IP, especially over Ethernet, provide no guarantees of low latency and high bandwidth. While VoIP doesn't really need much more than 50kbps for tolerable quality, you really do need to keep it reasonably constant, so that the various adaptive bits can do their thing. Latency of more than about half a second, though, especially variable latency, is a killer. If you want to do soft realtime applications, like telephony, with a reasonable chance of it working once you start approaching the capacity of the link, then you need to design the protocol around it from the start. BT's CACX, for instance, solved most of these problems before IP even existed.