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You Don't Know Jack about VoIP
gManZboy writes "Phil Sherburne and Cary Fitzgerald, two senior technologists over at Cisco, have written an in-depth overview of VoIP for developers and the like (not for everyone who's ever used a phone). Like Queue's earlier You Don't Know Jack about Disks, this article covers the history, the basic technologies, how they work, and where they're headed. If you found the blog post yesterday lacking, check this one out."
So you're getting VoIP just to screw the telco? Are you actually saving money? How are you measuring ROI? What will your ROI be?
I'm just curious. I've had several places look into it but have never found any way to justify it.
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VOIP will, especially cellula service. At least once we get more wireless access points happening. Finally get some real point of prescence happening for voice, messaging, office access etc.
One other thing. I prefer VOIP services that offer a hardware box where I can plug a regular phone in. Especially since then I can use my cordles, or whatever handset I prefer. Even better if I wire it in when the phone line enters the house, then I don't change anything else, and every phone in the house in now VOIP
Last time I talked to Cisco they wanted about 75k (in USD) for a solution which had the main selling points of user login/call routing. ooooo!
Still no phone2phone encryption!
The unslient majority wants:
- video phones
- encryption
- Cell+Wifi in one device with auto switch over
- Server software that runs on Linux for those of us that like a standard back office.
No way, my company pays over $10,000/ month in long distance for our 1-800 nubmers and all the long distance we use. The bandwidth you could get for that price is pretty good.
At any rate, I wouldn't think it would be a problem for VOIP providers to integrate with 911. They have the address of all their customers, seems like it would be trivial to have a 911 operator send out the request and an automated response would reply with the address. That would solve the problem of not being able to find the person trying to call.
As for a power outage, we had one recently and our cisco poe switches kept all the phones up so most of the building had no idea the servers were no longer receiving power.How well does 911, or your local countries' equivalent, work with it? When you dial 911 from a voip phone, does it report the location of the phone, or the billing location of the phone?
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At any rate, I wouldn't think it would be a problem for VOIP providers to integrate with 911. They have the address of all their customers, seems like it would be trivial to have a 911 operator send out the request and an automated response would reply with the address.
I've done some work for a VOIP service provider. The way their system works, they don't know your current location. Sure, they know your home address, but with their setup, there's nothing to say I didn't take the box to my friends place, plug in to his high speed and make the call. This is why I like the service I worked on. The service comes with a little box (about the size of those home routers) that you plug your high speed into and a regular phone, and away you go. As long as you have high speed and clear access to the ports needed, the service works. Sure, your bill gets mailed to your home address, but that doesn't mean that's where your making the calls from.
As for a power outage, we had one recently and our cisco poe switches kept all the phones up
That may work in an office environment when the phones are hooked up to the switch, but what about at home, when your VOIP is over cable or phone line? No power, no dial tone.
Sounds like a config problem. For our Cisco system, you just transfer to *+extension to go directly to the extension's voicemail. There was no special configuration to do that.
We're rolling out to 21 sites (400 phones) and have had only a couple of small issues so far.
Jason
"FORMAT C:" - Kills bugs dead!
I don't like cable modem service, so I deliberately chose DSL. Of course, that means I need to get the POTS service...but, I've gotten my landline service down to 8.44$/month with the "metered" service package. And I make those 8$ up by receiving unlimited calls on it (instead of using my cell phone airtime), so it's practically free.
In more developed/affluent areas, the LECs are now offering fixed-price bundles that compete very well against separate broadband/VoIP/LD packages from separate providers.
Where this makes a differences is in outlying suburban and rural markets where the CATV provider is often the only choice for broadband, and there's no local telco competition. I live in such a place, and although I'm served by Verizon, my pricing structure and options are very different from virtually anywhere else.For $16/month I have a Vonage account as a second phone line, with unlimited inbound and local calls and 500 minutes long distance. Vonage gives me caller ID, three-way calling, voicemail, call forwarding and call accounting. My Verizon POTS line costs twice as much, includes no long distance, and half the features.
If my Cable Internet provider could clean-up their network to reduce latency and outages, and boost my upload speed a bit, I would consider dropping Verizon altogether and get two lines from Vonage. That would save me at least $20/month while providing features that Verizon would normally charge outrageous extra fees.--- A man with a briefcase can steal more money, than any man with a gun. [Don Henley]
Mine isn't. Well, it is for general usage, but my DSL is down for one reason or another a few hours every month. I've never had a cable modem but if it's anything like my horrible spotty Adelphia digital cable (which seems to be out a few hours a week, and has constant lags and glitches) I would expect the same.
Neither of these problems is so bad, but if a DSL glitch meant I couldn't use the phone either I would really be up shit creek. (I suppose most home VOIP users would also have a cell phone, but what about, say, businesses who rely on incoming calls?)
Land lines may be archaic but they are very dependable. Even when the power goes out, they're there. Since VOIP relies on both power and your broadband service-- both of which are prone to occasional glitches, especially if you live in a less-than-urban area-- I would never trust one to be my sole phone line.
Of course if I lived in an area where land lines were horribly expensive-- like the Caribbean, or areas of Europe and Asia-- VOIP would be a Godsend.
my password is private, but unchanged.
If I have a power outage I use my cell phone. Or go out onto the street and use a payphone. Or use a neighbours regular phone - whatever, if I need to make an emergency call I can.
As for 911, they have my home address (and will route your call to the appropriate response center) but yes you will need to provide your location to the operator. Personally I don't see that as being a big problem, but then I've only had to call the emergency services twice and both times I could speak just fine (and co-incidentally both times I was calling from a cell so I had to give them my address anyway).
I just don't think this is a big a deal as people think. But, each to their own. If being able to call 911 while unable to speak is worth $45-$60 per month (that's what I, as a light phone user save using Vonage) then it's your choice to carry on using POTS.
---- Den ene knappen er powerknapp, den andre er Bender voice knapp "Bite My Shiny Metal Ass"
I wrote a post some time ago about how I thought VoIP was not ready for primetime. I was subequently trashed by a self-affirming moron and rated down. Whatever.
Voice communication relies on time sensitive delivery of very small bits of information.
IP networks are designed to deliver large gulps of information in a non so timely fashion. Wht I mean by this is that in an IP network, equipment will deliver information as quickly as it can, but there's nothing the 802.x quite of protocols which inherantly facilitates predictably timely delivery of data. Timely delivery is governed by network and infrasturcture "health". Sure, there's QoS, but that ultimately gives very little benefit unless the network is under heavy load anyways, in which case, VoIP is a bust regardless.
Conversations can seem decoupled. Calling someone 1/2 mile away can introduce the latency that can be expected when calling overseas. It doesn't feel "like a phone" to many end users.
Jitter, latency (huge), and the general difficulty of "simulating a telephone" over IP services is what will prevent VoIP for taking hold until several generations of technology and a generation or two of home connectivity methods is introduced.
Contrast ATM networks, which are designed specifically to deliver small bits of information very quickly. These networks are ideal of VoIP.
Poeple don't have ATM to their houses, they have DSL or cable services which offer NOWHERE near the reliability of a typical voice network.
Someone can fairly realistically expect 1/2 of a building to be blown to pieces, while a phone in the other half will work. This is how reliable voice networks have been.
Within a company on a controlled LAN, VoIP can work because you have some control over the quality of the service. To the home, we are not close to being ready.
I've implemented VoIP switches since their initial introduction, I have spoken at international conferences on the merits and pitfalls of VoIP. I'm not trying to toot my own horn, I'm just saying.... I've used and abused these switches, phones and protocols, and I find them lacking outside tightly controlled environments. Across a vendor's backbone? Sure, no problem. Will I use it exclusively in my home? No freaking way.