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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
I don't know where you've gotten this "No 911 with VoIP" idea from.
I work for a telco/ISP/VoIP provider, and we've offer 911 services standard with all VoIP services. It's the same E911 service that cell carriers are providing.
And most major VoIP industry players offer it as a standard, or at least optional, feature.
Cell carriers are legally bound to provide E911 services (stage 1). VoIP carriers are not, but most serious providers do anyway, to have feature parity with the POTS market.
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.
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