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FCC Forum Divided on Future VoIP Regulation
ElCheapo writes "As the great philosopher Eminem once said, 'The FCC won't let [VoIP] be, or let [VoIP] be free.' In Washington today, the FCC held a public forum 'to gather information concerning advancements, innovations, and regulatory issues related to VoIP services.' Slashdot has seen numerous stories on VoIP regulation recently, but Tom Evslin, CEO of ITXC, brought up another point: If VoIP is over-regulated, it will not go away, it will just move to other countries and reach the point where regulation can no longer be enforced. With or without VoIP regulation, will a global P2P (PSTN-connected) voice network emerge? Will it start out as hobbyists setting up Asterisk Open Source PBX boxes connected to their home POTS line? Will some form of ENUM allow least cost routing to boxes sitting in basements and garages around the world? If an ITSP in Europe can setup an Asterisk box with PSTN access and start offering US phone numbers and vice-versa, will global number plans become obsolete? What effect will the ridiculously low barrier to entry for VoIP have on telecommunications?"
FCC Chairman Powell Opposes Internet Phone Regulation.
SIG:Slashdot: indymedia for nerds.
The Canadian equivalent of the FCC, the CRTC, decided years ago not to regulate the Internet.
For non-telco-speaking Slashdotters..
POTS = Plain Old Telephone System
PSTN = Public Switched Telephone Network
Right is wrong when left is right.
To charge just to send VoIP data over a TCP/IP line along with all the other crap that goes with a TCP/IP line is a hearkening back to the "modem tax" proposal from the 1980s.
This sig no verb.
Gnomemeeting is a panic and only a client...
... supports standard tdm technologie (pri/pra,bri(te/nt)), supports analog techs (fxo/fxs) ... all in 1 software, giving same services to all technologies, making then interoperate without issue. to obtain that you'll need at least one vocal server, one h323 gatekeerper, one bayonne server for pstn gw....
Vocal... bah... is only an ifrastructure, you'll need a lot of integration to make a decent VoIP server and only supports SIP...
Linphone... never been able to make it work correctly (even patching the code...) , perhaps too Vocal-centric ?
Bayonne... more platforms! ah ah! you meant more "dialogic cards only"...
btw, Asterisk supports sip,h323,mgcp
sorry, but asterisk if a lot more than a simple hobbist soft-pbx... many VoIP termination services run with asterisk... give me an example of one termination service running with only 1 soft-pbx platform, if you can.
just my 2 cents.
a fellow asterisk user.
I was there.
The telephony network gives you reliable, timely delivery. That is, you get a chunk of bandwidth on all of the segments between you and the other end, and this bandwidth carries your signal, whatever it is, as long as you're connected. This is why, if the system is overloaded, you may have a hard time getting a connection, but once you've got one, it's just like when the system isn't overloaded.
This is fundamentally different from an IP network, where routers along the path delay or drop packets as needed to be able to push data around, and the protocols are designed to manage the unreliability. Of course, they can only insure either that the stream never gets out of order or that the stream is never delayed too much, not the complete reliability of delivery that phone gives you.
So IP-to-telephone calls use both networks, and might get regulated that way. But pure VoIP calls aren't "telephone calls" at all; they're IP connections. It's no more "free telephone calls" than talking in person or talking by two-way radio. Of course, it's not free either; you'll have to pay somehow for your IP connection.
Incidentally, I suspect that traditional telephone may end up as a city service like water or sewer service. This is because it is in the government interest to provide 911 service, and to tax the public in the area accordingly, and IP, without dedicated bandwidth, may not be considered sufficient.
Debian, check, Asterisk, check, modem, no. Digum single line FXS card, yes. And if you throw a single line FXO card in too you can plug your phone into the FXS, PTSN line into the FXO, and configure asterisk to route what it can (friends, etc) over some sort of VoIP(H323, SIP, IAX, etc) and everything else out the PTSN line.
;)
As an uber bonus you get voicemail and can then to spiffy menus and skrew with people just like call centers like to you, complete with MP3 hold music. "I value your call, please hold." "I'm not answering right now, press one to leave a message, press 2 to page my cell phone with your caller ID info..." etc. Hell, you can even use CallerID to decide how to answer calls. Work=>strait to voicemail, girlfriend (Hey! It could happen) => play a special message and ring the phone with a distinctive ring. Ex-girlfriend=>"This number has been disconnected, or is not in service".
It's almost enough to make me want a land line
- RustyTaco
"Regulation == Bad"
This is so typical of the "market will fix everything" type of thinking that has become so prevalent thanks to the Rush Limbaugh (druggie) ilk.
If corporations WERE trustworthy to police themselves (remember, a corporation can't go to jail.) then we wouldn't need government to keep them in line.
As long as there are Enrons, Worldcoms, Microsofts, AT&Ts, "Private" schools, and any other for-profit corporations providing infrastructure, we need regulations to keep them honest, because believe me, without that, they'll run right over the consumer every time!!