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VoIP Regulation, SIP Insurrection
Chris Holland writes "As voice communications are evolving beyond traditional phone systems and making better use of the Internet, Aswath Rao is offering regulation-advocating counterpoints to Dr. Daniel Ryan's original analysis of various VoIP industry players' arguments for deregulation. Many of the above discussions revolve around closed, regulatory-scrutiny-fostering voice communications ecosystems reserved to a small, resourceful elite. Meanwhile, an open Internet protocol which provides support for all forms of real-time communications including Text, Voice and Video, with a few open-sourced server implementations and free client solutions is starting to gain serious ground: The Session Initiation Protocol enables just about anybody with little resources to become their own Real-Time Communications Giant."
Okay, here's the rules.
;)
Every time someone mentions the word "Asterisk" in this page, you have to take a shot.
(Note that I'm building 2 of the 'A' Boxes right now. One for my home, and one at the office, a third will go at the ISP.)
Karma: Chameleon (mostly due to the fact that you come and go).
The ability to circumvent NAT is why programs like Skype have such popularity and why Linux users looking for more control have been quick to investigate Asterisk and it's IAX2 protocol.
Open standards are all very well, but for the time being at least, SIP is going to be a good technology so we can connect our computers to big carrriers and interoperate with the POTS. Other technologies have the potential to completely circumnavigate POTS and the big carriers - you cna bet your life they'll do everything they can to make sure they're not adopted.
The whole VoIP technology has the ability to revolutionize communications. We just need to make sure that the industry is kept open enough, so everyone has a chance to innovate. Open source and open protocols are an excellent way to help do that. If the government steps in and starts regulating everything like they did with POTS, then we'll end up with a few huge monopolies that offer horrible service and horrible prices again.
I store my recipes online (the way nature intended)
Yes, you can send and recieve faxes and dial-out via modem over VOiP.
I dial out over Vonage all the time, since the only access to most of the boxes I support is via dial-up. There are still plenty of computers that aren't on the 'net, especially where privacy/security is key.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Friend of mine called me from his Asterisk box last nite -- I picked up the call on my cell phone. His voice was clear, crisp, unjittered, no echo -- sounded like he was on a landline handset.
So, I'm now experimenting with Asterisk...
Zhrodague.net - I do projects and stuff too.
The Session Initiation Protocol enables just about anybody with little resources to become their own Real-Time Communications Giant.
... protocol (sic) does not function as a magic bullet. Just waving the SIP spec at a traditional telcom does not knock them over. (Okay, throwing the entire printed version of all the SIP specs might...) This isn't about anyone with just 'a little resources', this is about people with resources, a lot of technical know-how (SIP is easy only in the sunny day cases), and LOTS OF TIME.
And anyone with a hoe and a little water can become a Real Farming Industry Giant! Or, If You Have A Few Bucks, You Can Buy This Bridge I Can Sell You.
The
VoIP (and similar technologies) does not provide any address information when you call 9-1-1 (I know neither do PBX's, but most people do not have one of those in their houses). That is a really big issue if someone reports his or her address wrong to the 9-1-1 Dispatcher (it happens all of the time, all over the country - I call this the grey side of innovation). Deregulation certainly has its pluses, but what are they worth if you or someone you know doesn't get they help they need? There is a public perception that 9-1-1 will come to your aid if you call them, many people were taught this as children. If these VoIP companies choose not to address this issue, then where does that leave the whole EMS system? How can they assist the public if they do not know where they are calling form? Just some thoughts.
When in danger or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout.
As atleast all the "real" revices are programmabel, you just give a voice menu that a human can easily select past.
"You have called the residence of (insert name), the calls here are subject to licence agreemennt, Press 1 to accept the lisence, press 2 to listen to the lisence or hang up."
On 1 it connects.
on 2 it says something like "This is a legal agreement between you, the caller and (insert name), the called party. if you are trying to sell a product or a service, you must provide full company and personal details and to present the product truthfully. You will be billed 20 Dollars a minute for the call. Any lie or omission of fact on your part will result in a 500 dollar fee for for each such instance. By continuing this call you are accepting these conditions. if you do not jave the authority to accept contracts by phone, hang up now." And then continue about everything else you can think of..
Thus everyone can just press 1 to continue and the phone will ring as normal, but try getting a spam to do that.. and all the telemarketeers are promising to pay you 20 dollars a minute to listen to them.. :)
I think the biggest thing that the VoIP providers can do to avoid regulation is open up their SIP networks. And the best thing people like AT&T can do to get upstart VoIP players regulated is to open up their SIP networks.
VoIP get's most of the emphasis, but SIP is the killer app that VoIP is riding on, IMHO. The most annoying thing is that the VoIP providers won't allow customers, other VoIP providers or CPE (Customer Premise Equipment) manufactures access to the really cool features of SIP.
What can you do with truly open SIP. For starters it help to understand that SIP is a signaling protocol (like SS7 in the POTS world), not a communication protocol, SIP doesn't bother with encoding, decoding, or routing of the actually bits being communicated. As the name implies Session Initiation Protocol initiates communication session between end-points, once initiated the communication occurs direct between the end-point devices using some other protocol negotiated by SIP when it initiated the connection. However, the word "initiation" is a bit misleading because the SIP server also maintains awareness of the connection once established and can be used to control the connection afterwards and that can include adding/subtracting end-points, add/subtracting layers of communication, re-connecting end-points, etc. Very powerful stuff.
So with open SIP, you could have your cell phone route calls to the ATA in your home when you're home, but directly to your cell phone when away (and visa versa) by having the SIP server of your home ATA tell the SIP server of your cell phone provider that the new end-point device for phone number xxx is here. Also, you could set up complex multi-media connection on the fly. You're chatting over IM with someone and decide you need to up the bandwidth to voice, click, both parties (2 or more actually) phones ring, need to add a data feed to that to send a file, click. Need to add video, click.
The possibilities of what can be done with SIP have just barely been explored because of the limitation imposed by the VoIP providers. If only they understood Metcalf's law: The power of the network increases proportionately with the square of the number of nodes on the network. So by artificially limiting the number of nodes on your VoIP network to only your customers you really do yourself a disservice.
So if AT&T opened up its SIP network first and allowed users to see the power of SIP then the public sentiment could very quickly tilt in favor of regulation on other VoIP providers to do the same. On the other hand, if Vonage opened up its SIP network first then it could maintain the regulatory high-ground that VoIP inherently creates a competitive marketplace without regulations.
The irony, of course, being that SIP has MORE THAN ONCE been suggested as a replacement open IM protocol...
1) When your power goes out, the phone still works. Your computers (and VoIP phone) do not.
2) When your Network connection flakes out (as it is known to do periodically), your VoIP phone goes silent.
3) When your ISP starts to block or throttle back VoIP calls which are not routed through their own VoIP service, your VoIP phone is almost useless. You can thank the lack of regulations for this.
The VoIP industry is very much in bubble mode right now. It will burst, and when it does, I think that VoIP will finally have the opportunity to mature into a product which is actually useable for joe average.
Feed the need: Digitaladdiction.net
Sucks going with a proprietary, closed vendor sometimes. We've been very happy with our Sip-enabled Polycom phones though, we have an office full of them now and they work like champions. Nobody has even noticed that there are no phone lines in the new cubes and that the handsfree is full duplex now. I like it when new tech makes you take things for granted.
I'm not trying to impugn the technology -- I think VoIP is great, but if it's going to replace POTS, it needs oversight and regulation as a public service.
i don't suppose anyone on /. will mention it, but Microsoft have adopted SIP in the latest Windows Messenger client.
.NET Messenger client, which is designed for public Internet use. Windows Messenger is designed to work with a Live Communication Server, integrated into Active Directory and Microsoft Exchange. If you have the whole Microsoft suite, it actually works really well...
p pro/maintain/wmsgrfaq.mspx
Note that this is *not* the same as the
More info here... http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winx
We use this for corporate IM, voice and video conferencing, as well as remote desktop support (using the "remote assistance" feature) and also for desktop application sharing.