U.S. Election Gives VoIP Traffic A Bump

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U.S. Election Gives VoIP Traffic A Bump

Posted by timothy on Tuesday November 2, 2004 @08:28PM from the far-out-to-mainstream dept.

phoneboy writes "According to this news story on Voxilla.com, a number of VoIP service providers have experienced higher-than-normal call volumes today. The calls were traced to mostly Democratic volunteers making calls in key battleground states."

11 of 180 comments (clear)

VoIP Democrats by Anonymous Coward · 2004-11-02 20:30 · Score: 4, Funny

Is it because the Republicans didn't need the calls, or that they couldn't figure out the VoIP software?
Huh?? by DigiShaman · 2004-11-02 20:32 · Score: 3, Interesting

Ummm ok...so what is so important about this bit of news? Are they implying that most VOIP users are democrats?

--
Life is not for the lazy.
Re:The calls were traced!? by isometrick · 2004-11-02 20:36 · Score: 5, Insightful

"... Sakaria did a quick check of caller IDs and found that most of the calls from the Democratic party ..."

They actually did look at the caller ID of their customer's calls!? And at least researched them enough to figure out that they were Republican or Democratic volunteers?

Holy crap! Isn't this kind of data mining illegal?
traced? by Anonymous Coward · 2004-11-02 20:40 · Score: 5, Insightful

how the hell can they trace it to "democrats", wow, talk about Orwells 1984 in action.
1. Re:traced? by tonsofpcs · 2004-11-02 20:43 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  Seems more like they monitor them. With some of these VoIP agreements, you let them not only track your calls, but monitor them. Read your agreements. This has changed for many of them since they started, but some still do have a monitoring provision.
  
  --
  Video Production Support
2. Re:traced? by Razzak · 2004-11-02 21:27 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Remove the tin-foil hat man. When your network usage spikes, you find out whose spiking it. When you find out whose spiking, you might call them up and ask why.
  
  Just a thought.
VOIP, the FCC and the Telcos by aacool · 2004-11-02 20:43 · Score: 4, Insightful

The VOIP boom is just beginning - the effect on the Telcos cannot be overestimated.
Since the FCC is (currently) Republican, except harder regulation in the upcoming Presidential term on VOiP carriers.
It's a stretch though, to imagine that Democrats are larger VOIP users than Republicans - that's data mining carried to the extreme.
mostly Democratic volunteers by Threni · 2004-11-02 20:43 · Score: 5, Funny

> The calls were traced to mostly Democratic volunteers making calls in key
> battleground states."

Well, given that they'll all be crying, I guess at least there'll be a good compression ratio!
Re:What have you done?????? by Anonymous Coward · 2004-11-02 21:07 · Score: 3, Funny

Perhaps if foreigners had stayed out of trying to influence the Ohio election, the outcome might have been different. We don't like outsiders telling us what to do.
Or... by Anonymous Coward · 2004-11-02 21:19 · Score: 3, Funny

Preparing for a possible civil war. (I think Bush will strike first but blame the democrats, before the provisional ballots or recounts or appeals are done).

Don't forget: in the event of a civil war, food shipments may be irregular, so plant a garden.
Congratulations by Anonymous Coward · 2004-11-02 22:16 · Score: 5, Insightful

More than 50% of the American people supports the president who started a war and deceived his people and the world about the prerequisite of that war. Regardless of the outcome of the election, the world will remember the statement you as a country gave to the world today.