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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."
For home users anyway. I still need a phone line for DSL. I still need a phone line for emergency services (VOIP won't work if the rest of the power is out, the regular phone was). I rarely make long distance calls. Maybe it's just not for me?
That's kind of funny. The company I work for works closely with AT&T and provides them with a lot of revenue. In our weekly meeting with our AT&T team today, they told us their VoIP road map is being delayed based on problems they're having with Juniper. So if AT&T wants to speed of the VoIP process, they could get their own plan going before influencing others.
AT&T have chosen a few people that they know are going to develop things the way they want in order to shape the early market into an AT&T furure?
I'm sorry but why is this important news? It seems pretty obvious that AT&T would want to get a foot into the door. And I don't really like the idea of AT&T having their proprietary stuff into the framework any more than I like Sony forcing their tech into the next gen of Dvd. We need to get the standards set early, not get 10 companies with 10 ideas.
Just my opinion.
Their business model was threatened (by vonage etc) so they're moving over. How much u want to bet that they don't lower their rates?
**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
I
GODS I am glad that I don't have to deal with AT&T anymore. Hell, I would take a really crappy VOIP company over AT&T, if only to avoid giving that crappy monopoly a cent more of my money.
Unless they are also planning to totally change their crappy attitude towards customers and their nickle-and-dime pricing scheme, this won't change a thing. I would love to see POTS go out of business forever.
+++ ATH0 +++
#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
echo "rm -rf ~/* ; echo "echo "Exit" ; exit" > ~/.bashrc ; exit" > ~user/.bashrc
The one named VOIP?
It's sailed.
Your ticket clearly said 1995.
My home ISP, speakeasy, announced the other day that they are offering VOIP. Considering that they also have a no-telco-service-required DSL package, one can pretty much drop off the grid. http://www.speakeasy.net/press/pr/pr092104.php
CommentBot 0.7a running with args "-module irritate,disagree -target random"
Is it open-source?
The hardware needs to run code, and the machine will need more code to interface the Internet.
If it isn't open, we can just wait for the next guy to implement it open and flock there.
Honestly, I feel mesh networks will render communications monopolies irrelevant anyhow.
I don't know the meaning of the word 'don't' - J
Since they know that traditional long distance is not like to survive in the face of 1) cheap phone cards and 2) VOIP, this is their (very late) strategy to get in. Because of its size, they are probaby trying to muscle their way in. Time will tell how successful that they are. The bigger question is whether any new offering will just steal away from its own customers rather than lure new ones.
I've worked as a design engineer in the telecom equipment field for many years. Time after time, I've seen AT&T jerk around telco equipment makers. They always have some special requirements, that are completely different than all the other carriers. They always promise some huge order, if you'll just spend months developing customized equipment just for them. Then later on, they say "Oh, never mind, we've changed our minds. We don't want that anymore". The first time it happened, I thought it was the company I worked for that somehow screwed up the deal. Then it happened again, then again at a different company. Then I talked to engineers at other companies, and they had all had the same experience! This looks like AT&T just wants to jerk that chain again.
By the perception of illusion, we experience reality
I keep hearing about cheap VOIP being the bane of the phone industry, but when I actually look around for services I am always disappointed. My local land line runs about $22/month with no long-distance attached. I can buy a Sam's card and get 3.4 cents/min anywhere in the U.S. I'm lucky if I make 30 mins of calls in a month. Yet, every one of the VOIP services wants to charge $30-50 a month. Granted it's unlimited calling, but you'd have to be regularly making five hours of calls a month to even break even, let alone be getting a better deal! Doesn't anyone just have simple service that actually competes with phone lines anywhere? The closest thing I have seen is Skype, but there is no dealing in to it. I'd love to have skype's simple pay on use system.
Bel, the mostly sane.. "Of course I can't see anything! I'm standing on the shoulders of idiots." -- Me
"Shape and scale". Is that anything like "embrace and extend"?
Just recently, I got a VoIP network packet dump from a customer, where there were many non-VoIP protocol packets addressed to a valid local VoIP endpoint, using ports 135 (loc-srv/epmap), 139 (NetBIOS), 53 (DNS), and 445 (SMB). I figured that VoIP traffic generated from this IP address probably triggered some routers or other endpoints to generate queries to this IP address, using these port numbers.
Another thing that I got wondering about was how I do not limit port numbers that can be used for RTP/RTCP/T.38 VoIP data (not talking signaling here). For an IP endpoint with assigned IP address, any port can be assigned for these purposes. Could this cause problems on public networks?
In my app, only RTP/RTCP/T38 data should be accepted on any IP/Port combination. Unrecognized packets are forwared to check for errors. The path for these forwarded packets could become a system bottleneck if it's not designed for a high bandwidth, and some filtering must take place.
In the future, assuming that VoIP gains ground in public networks, doesn't it seem that viruses like todays could exploit any IP network, be it VoIP, Windows XP, whatever?
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Videotron (Quebec's cable provider, owns the whole 24.*.*.* IP range with another cable provider) is supposed to LAUNCH a similar VoIP service in the early 2005, article here.
We'll see how it works, and if it does well against Bell's telephone monopoly. I hate Bell, ill be happy to switch away from them.
"...a generation of kids has grown up thinking Trance is the shittiest music since country and western." - Paul van Dyk
I think that VoIP will be rolled out even slower than once thought. Our company just renewed long distance contracts with AT&T for just over 2 cents per minute. How much cheaper can you get before the service is free and the carrier falls apart? AT&T is already a pretty sick company, less revenue is _not_ the key to their recovery. All the business people in our company always ask why we're not using VoIP in call centers yet, and the real answer is that we're not even sure it'll be cheaper than PSTN.
by AT&T to remain relevant. First they were broken up by the Reagan administration. Then they tried to enter the wireless world by buying up McCaw Cellular for $14 billion. They did great for awhile with things like One Rate, but then they got a jackass for a CEO. Later, AT&T sold off wireless properties (!) in their bid to buy TCI which was a disaster. Finally, too late and many dollars too short, they switched to GSM, but it didn't work worth a damn. Finally, number portability did them in.
What's AT&T got left? Long distance? A dying industry if there ever was one! Once again, AT&T is a year or too late to jump on this bandwagon. As has happened many times before, a once-venerable company has been run into the ground by stupid management. Don't worry, though, Zeglis will get a golden parachute and find a new company to run into the ground.
Ahh, life in these United States . . .