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Qwest & Cablevision Launch VoIP Service
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."
Great! I'm very pleased to see the deployment of a new technology like VOIP, because I can certainly see how it will increase access to telephone service in metropolitan areas, while decreasing costs for the consumer. At the same time, the increased deployment of high-speed interconnects may help break the old 56K bottleneck that's throttling the Internet.
While I'm always glad to hear about the deployment of new technologies like VOIP I do worry because it's coming at the hands of YAHC (Yet Another Huge Corporation). I certainly applaud Qwest, but what will this do the mom-and-pop telecoms in the area? How are they supposed to compete against this behemoth? I hope that before switching to this fancy new service, people stop to think about the effect this may have on the hard-working, middle class telecom owners who live in their neighborhoods, and whose children play with yours.
Sorry if that sounded like a rant...I'm a small business myself. My company is the second-largest soy sauce vending machine manufacturer in the U.S., but recently we've been dwarfed by the likes of Wal-Mart, IBM, and Kikkoman. Don't worry about me, though...worry for our way of life. Sadly, it seems the mom-and-pop telecom and the mom-and-pop soy vending industry may be a thing of the past, just like the agribusinessman and the zebra.
finally working? or is there some sorte of comment deficit?
/.puppets, is WANing into coolapps/the abyss, at the (increasing) speed of right.
no matter. lookout bullow. the daze of the FraUDuleNT payper liesense corepirate nazi softwar gangster stock markup execrable, & their fauxking phonIE
welcome to the gnu millennium.
consult with/trust in yOUR creators... get ready to see the light.