AT&T Announces VoIP Program

An anonymous reader writes "DeviceForge reports that AT&T has unveiled a program to foster the 'development, delivery, and adoption' of emerging voice over IP (VoIP) applications, capabilities, and devices. The program, based on proprietary AT&T specifications, is intended to enable 'select vendors' to test applications and equipment against AT&T specs and thereby ensure compatibility with AT&T's evolving VoIP communication services. AT&T has invited industry leaders representing application developers, equipment, device manufacturers, and silicon vendors to participate in the program in order to 'shape and scale' the emerging VoIP market."

Comments

Dear AT&T,

[eSims]

**snide intone**
Do you feel threatened by the competition?

And well you should...

Sure, go ahead... try to control VOIP...

It won't work...

**/snide intone**
**angry intone**
Your days are numbered and I for one am GLAD!

You ripped off the consumer for far to many years and now your whole industry is facing devastation at the hands of cell phone providers and OSS/paid VOIP providers.

Good riddance!
**/angry intone>**

Yours Truly,

An EX-customer

Re:Dear AT&T,

[pchan-]

Dear Customer,

You many not realize this, but we are a government sanctioned monopoly. We own all the phones and all the phone lines in this country, including the wiring in your house. You will fall in place and pay for phone service!

No, wait, what we meant was that we own the entire long distance phone system in the United States.

Wait, I'm told that we actually don't own anything anymore. Well, we can be cool, like all these other companies. Here, you want VOIP, you got it! We'll create a standard just for you, so you can get the same friendly, reliable service you've come to rely on from AT&T. Our proprietary standards will allow us to control the, uh, quality of your phone service and bring it to the same level or reliability and affordability you've come to expect from our land-lines. We know you have a choice in your telecommunication options, and choice can be confusing. That is why we are doing our best to make everyone out there exactly the same. You know, like the mobile phone industry. Look at how well that turned out.

Love,
AT&T*

* Our corporate logo's resemblence to the Death Star is purely coincidental.

Slashthink

[Pikhq]

#slashthink --debug --article current --att --voip
Slashthink started!
VoIP is good. ATT is bad. But them supporting VoIP makes them good. But ATT is bad. But them supporting VoIP makes them good. But ATT is bad. But now they are good. But they're bad! ATT is bad. No, they are good. No they are bad. Good! Bad! Angelic! Demonic! Good! Evil!
Slashthink allocating more memory. All physical memory allocated.

slashthink: Segmentation Fault. Core Dumped
Panic!: Kernel memory overwritten

Hey AT&T, see that ship on the horizon?

[Illserve]

The one named VOIP?

It's sailed.

Your ticket clearly said 1995.

It gets worse...

[Anonymous Coward]

...AT&T will not allow you to transmit any non-AT&T packets on their network. You must rent all your packets from AT&T.

Re:What is with the prices?

[andrews]

At least five hours a month?

You must not be married. My wife can put in five hours a DAY on the phone! Thank god for unlimited flat rate long distance.

Re:Smart move

[flyboy974]

When you said you had good news, I thought you had saved money on your car insurance by swithing to Geico.

Re:Let me guess

[Anonymous Coward]

This reminds me of an investigation I saw on TV, perhaps on 20/20, where they brought in a rocket scientist and a brain surgeon to figure out what exactly the charges were for, in the end they hadn't clue.