Slashdot Mirror
VoIP Advances And Trends For 2004
gardel writes "So everyone's top-tech predictions for 2004 says it will be the year of VoIP. What does that really mean? This may narrow it down. Here's Voxilla's list of the top-10 advances and trends in the world of VoIP. On the list: VoIP and cellular converges, IP phones take over, Chinese and Mexican phone numbers come to the U.S., Asterisk hits it big. What would you add?"
I'm hoping that VoIP remains as unencumbered by foolish laws and regulations as is. With recent, pending and looming court actions this could change soon and be one of the great turning points of 2004. As is, though, I think we're in a very good situation and I hope the lawmakers keep it that way. Fingers crossed for communication technology!
Slashdot: when news breaks, we give you the pieces.
Just because VoIP involves voice, that does NOT mean it's the same as telephone service. The monopolistic nature of telephone service (only one company can realistically have lines in a given area, particularly in the "last mile") makes heavy regulation and regulatory fees necessary. VoIP does not suffer from this physical limitation to competition, and thus any number of VoIP providers can exist in any area. This is yet another blatant attempt of government to cash in on an emerging technology.
I am currently setting up an asterisk PBX with polycom ip phones and VOIP for outgoing calls. It is incredible software. I have no doubt that in the next year or two, it will become one of the most important open source projects, right up there with Linux and Apache.
The software does have a steep learning curve (not worse that any other telco system though). Be prepared to spend a few weeks just getting a basic system with a couple of phones to go. However, once you get it up and going, it is very easy (and cheap!) to expand.
Asterisk will totally replace the current PBX and key systems, and it will also play a key role in destroying the traditional overpriced channelized telco services.
I've never personally understood this mania that the POTS folks have for dragging all of the old telephone system baggage into VOIP. Why on earth should we perpetuate the same old nonsense of "area codes" & "country codes"? (They are completely artificial & capricious anyway.) What's wrong with dialing someone by their IP address, that's what I want to know?
"The time is always now" - Victor
Skype will be one of the shakers. 5 million downloads, soaring up with exponential curve, still in beta but over constantly over 100K users online at the same time.
Unless they sell it away, there is no reason why Skype would not shake the market similarly as Kazaa did. Expect atleast to see the Telcos to read the law in new and inspiring ways to stop the rush.
MoFscker
Another reason why we should go over to the IPv6 standard as soon as it's mature. If everyone wants VoIP we have to get more IPs.
:)
The hack called NAT can probably be hacked even more to do this, but it would've been a lot easier if we used the almost infinite pool of IPs accessible through IPv6.
A new domain should also arise dedicated to naming of IPs. Easier with name + city, instead of those nice long IPs?
I'm not very familiar with VoIP, so correct me if I'm wrong.
IAXprovider.net is the site for people who want to network their Asterisk systems (IAX is the protocol Asterisk uses to talk to other Asterisk instances) with other Asterisk users.
The site is intended as a hub for Asterisk users to meet up, network and take over the world of telephony.
And remember kids: Never trust a computer you can actually lift.
Has anyone come up with software for PDAs that will allow you to roam WiFis and use VoIP?
Or at least work in progress? It seems someone could develop software before Intel could develop (and market) a chip specifically for this purpose.
Where can I get a VoIP phone service (and a cheap yet good deal for a VoIP phone)? Can't find information on how to get VoIP in your home anywhere. I want to do this cause as I understand it, you aren't charged for long distance because (of course) your conversation is being transmitted over the internet. This means I'll have the luxury of calling anywhere in the US (and possibly the world) without a long distance fee.)
Thanks for the advice. And, in the future, I will do just that. But I do feel the need to point out that, in the story submission form, there is a field for "your home page", where I did enter voxilla.com. I made no effort to cloak my association with Voxilla. In the past, I have communicated with slashdot editors who know exactly what my role with the site is.
It's really an honor to have slashdotters read the content we put together on Voxilla. We work hard on the site and think there is useful material there that can't be found elsewhere. And so we have, a few times, pointed out a story we felt may be of particular interest to slashdot. At no time did we do so anonymously and, all of my posts here, make my association with Voxilla known.
If anyone was offended, I sincerely apologize and assure you that there was no intentional action taken to mislead anyone.
Marcelo Rodriguez Editor Voxilla.com http://voxilla.com
As someone who works in this industry, I thought I'd share some of the future of telecomm for those who aren't 'in the know'. All communication lines going to any endpoint (home, business, sensors, etc) are quickly moving to an IP based data network. Unfortunately, there are two problems that governments and current telephone companies face:
:-)
1) Roughly 50% of their voice revenue stream comes from per minute connection charges, other carrier access charges, & regulation charges (govn't). These will evaporate when subscribers move to data driven VoIP (ie: you pay a flat fee for DSL or cable modem bandwidth now, and it can run all your voice calls to anywhere in the world). Eventually the PSTN connection part will no longer be necessary, so Vonage will disappear as we know it today, but it has finally woken up the telcos to what the future will bring.
2) Pretty much the other half of their revenue stream comes from the 'premium' voice feature services (call waiting, text messaging, etc), all of which are quickly moving from the class 5 switch into the phones themselves (aka: free).
What do you do when your primary revenue stream evaporates? Fight it in the courts or with govn't officials. Remember, govn'ts have been taking a nice chunk of that revenue for themselves as well.
We will have to move to a bandwidth & quality of service (QoS) based payment style. A minimum bandwidth is given for a flat rate (which will include -all- voice), and extra bandwidth will be provided on demand at an agreed QoS. The higher the bandwidth & QoS, the higher the fee.
Things to watch out for: VoIP everywhere, SIP phones/services, VoWLAN, current voice carriers moving their infrastructure to their IP networks, and govn't regulations dictating that comm lines (called data services & unregulated) become regulated for QoS.
The companies that move to this model last will not survive. They aren't going to like this.
Make me your friend; my fans get +1 comment scores.