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SBC's VoIP End Run

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the running-to-the-bank dept.

Chris Holland writes "Right on the heels of a positive FCC regulation preventing individual U.S. States from levying taxes on VoIP communications, SBC, according to Om Malik, appears to have brought to a quick end the 'lets not pay any termination fees' party that had VoIP upstarts drunk. Jeff Pulver is also sharing his take."

2 of 95 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Oh deary me... by HidingMyName · · Score: 4, Insightful
    I didn't fully understand the article when I read it, but I think the termination fees aren't related to the internet, but to the local phone system.

    So Suppose that I'm calling from long distance to a friend of mine using VOIP, and that friend uses a traditional phone. Then what most VOIP vendors do is provide a sort of central office in each area code, and route the VOIP traffic there, and from the central office make a local phone call to establish connectivity. Traditionally this last hop has been cheap, however (if I understand correctly) SBC wants to charge more for local phone service when it is the last hop of a VOIP call. Since this kind of discriminatory pricing appears to be anticompetitive, I suspect that the govt. may prevent it.

    I've heard menbtion of attacks by ISPs that label the packets from their competitors as lower priority, giving their competitors inferior service. I'm uncertain whether the govt. has/will have/will enforce regulations about that.

  2. Let the invisiable hand solve this by bluGill · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Vonage and the likes already have momentum. Asterisk and the likes are in position to take over the PBX market. Connect the two automaticly, along with various other networks, and there is enough mass to solve this. Aunt Mary might not understand it now, but when all her relatives tell her to get off SBC because she is the only one in the world(!) they call where they have to pay fees, and she will be forced to listen. Once Aunt Mary realizes that she can call pretty much everyone for less on her VOIP phone, she drops SBC as an extra bill that she doesn't need.

    Soon SBC and the like will file for bankruptcy... Not really, they do have DSL, which is a good way to connect. When the notice that customers are switching to Cable internet just to avoid having to pay for an unused voice line, they will drop that all voice/DSL bundling requirements.

    As geeks it is our responsibility to socity to make sure it happens. So start your own VOIP expiriment at home, and use it once in a while. Long distance telephone is obsolete, but nobody has realized it yet.