VoIP Beats Conventional Phone Service In Iraq

andyring writes "According to this article at Wired, without reliable long distance or particularly international telephone service in Iraq, citizens in Baghdad and elsewhere turn to voice chat over programs such as Yahoo Voice Chat or other similar programs. Broadband at Internet cafes in Baghdad runs about $1/hr, whereas an international phone call (if you can even get a connection) is about $1/minute. The service is so popular, it sucks up almost all the available bandwidth from the government-run ISP, State Company for Internet Services (site is Arabic)."

Comments

Correction

[borgdows]

The service is so popular, it sucks up almost all the available bandwidth from the government-run ISP (LINK)

It isn't true anymore... from now it is Slashdoters who suck up almost all the available bandwidth...

Re:Correction

[Anonymous Coward]

The Slashdot infidels are NOT using up all our bandwidth! They can NOT Slashdot us! We are, in fact, slashdotting Slashdot as we speak!

-- Iraq/SCO Information Minister

Re:Blink warning!

[stevenp]

>> Is it just my browser's bad interpretation of arabic letters, or do they actually use blink tags liberally at that www.uruklink.net front page?

I am not too good at arabic, but I suppose the blinking text on the front page says: "We are currently being slashdotted, please try again later!!!"

Re:Whaaaa?

[Anonymous Coward]

I suppose you haven't heard about Maslows "staircase". It basically says that you have to fulfill the most basic human needs before you can fulfull the less basic ones.

Basically it goes like this (from most improtant to less important):

Porn -> Air -> Water -> Food -> Housing -> ...

Re:I've got some experience with VoIP

[VirexEye]

You were just waiting for a reason to gloat that you have a fiancee to the slashdot crowd weren't you?

Benefits are great

[el_flynn]

working halfway across the globe, I regularly use yahoo messenger to hold meetings with the US office. we've once even hooked up a machine with a webcam and had an entire department meeting that way.

of course someone had to sit in front of the pc so they could voice out what i said, and sound quality was a bit lacking, but it was a fantastic way to have teleconferencing on the cheap.

plus enabling the messenger's sounds allowed me to generate an annoying "ding" whenever someone said something silly heheh

Re:I've got some experience with VoIP

[Timesprout]

He probably wont for much longer if she reads /. and discovers he considers her a 'girlfriend' and he's too cheap to phone her :-)

Re:I've got some experience with VoIP

[Jacer]

He left out the very best part! They met via hotornot.com

One ISP to rule them all

[Whitecloud]

The service is so popular, it sucks up almost all the available bandwidth from the government-run ISP, State Company for Internet Services (site is Arabic)."

State Company for Internet Services = uruklink.net?? Arabic? sounds like the Black Speech, those orcs are wired!

Re. "Fiancee"

[heironymouscoward]

I'm an authority on this subject, because a friend of mine once dated a girl. Actually, we never met her, but he showed us emails and pictures, so it must have been real.

My dictionary defines "fiancee" as "a mother-in-law waiting to happen", which sounds pretty drastic.

I think I'll stick with my geektoys for now.

Nothing is better for future infrastructure than..

[BigGerman]

.. blowing up poles, wires, POPs and everything in between!
Liberation, nation-building and infrastructure upgrade in one convinient package.

Re:err...?

[cellocgw]

But I recall reading an article prior to the war about their military network for controlling their AA batteries - which was the very top of top notch. Not that it did them much good, I'm sure it was the very first thing taken out.

Goes to show.... they should have stuck with D batteries. :-)