VOIP, The Traditional Telephony Killer?

FrenchyinOntario writes "According to an article on IT World Canada's web site, an Ontario-based technology research firm says that 23% of small-to-medium-sized businesses have already implemented VOIP technology, and that traditional telephony companies need to adapt or die (big surprise there!) in order to remain viable. I don't necessarily agree with research analyst's George Goodall's claim that "It may be too late," since VOIP still suffers from troubling security issues as well as the possibility of SPITstorms. It's still too early to tell whether it will be a rehash of ten years ago when the telephone companies (even before the rise of the ILECS after the 1996 Telecom Reform Act) pishposhed the rising popularity of the Internet until they jumped onboard at the last minute."

Comments

Re:Internet Telephony

[wakejagr]

Actually, I've talked to far too many people who have VOIP phones that are not reliable. I'll never get a VOIP phone.

Relying on numbers bothers me.

[SlashdotTroll]

I'm surprised that with daily use of phone numbers, people are still aggressive in preventing the Social Security Number to have same use when a phone number is no different; a recent Slashdot story revealed that phone numbers will be used as the founding mechanism to reference credit transactions between two accounts. I have questions that many people can't or ardently criticize me for needing answered as a man wanting to be "out of the loop" but keeping his enemies closer than his friends:

When a number of any kind is being used; is it the number that you are sending the property to or the man holding the number? After all, the number is an account or repository. Most stransactions never stop referencing the number as separate from a property but forever a point of reference as though always attached and never discharged. I think of these numbers systems as a world within a world; no different than people that trade virtual property, such as in the Blizzard Entertainment games World of Warcraft and Diablo2.

And another question, building off the previous, that most people couldn't answer; why havn't there been any application for the use of a number as though a third-party to whomever is tunneling their noise/sound through it? Public relephones would be great use at a public billboard so those of use that are homeless can keep savvy with all the technology changing for whatever purposes yet still separate from us. I bought a Tracfone just for this purpose; I don't use a Social Security number and the Tracfone that I bought didn't require one for its activiation and refunding. I am satsified with this, that there are no numbers being cascaded into other records of foreign venues. According to FCC regulations on communiations protocol, I am privy with third-party interference as my voice. Given that a phone number is equally a straw-man as a Social Security Number, who is to say that it I own a phone number when it actually belongs to the phone company; am I not just a third party when tunneling my messages through that said messaging tool?

All these numbers...they are the proverbial "gateway" to regulation. If you cancled the driver license they will forever reference that number if you get a "ticket." Is any number just a strawmen to draw jurisidiction; acknowledge the number, aka breath life into the number, and it is an achiles heele?

I'm just a man. I need to talk over great distances somtimes, and *any* phone is already too much consideration for such a solution other than written messages through a postal courier. Every application from membership to refunds does not allow proceeding without a phone number in many cases; completely ignoring the long standing and completely legitimate general delivery at a post office. I use CB radios because that is all I need for communication. I think its bad to be overly dependent on a single solution; you get a social security number for free when at birth and is prevented from casual use. Yet the phone number is in its place and more effective with lesser regulation, while needing to PAY MONEY for the use of that phone number; but they idea is the same.

Some people can just as easily walk over to whomever they want to talk, and then there are those people that ask for "ID" and woulndn't acknowledge they even talked to you until you show them "ID" but still ask for "ID" anyway. It's a never-ending catch-22 among clubs. Isn't this a silly world we live in? They'll know you by whatever name spoken to them, but then on paperwork its almost as though a secretarial society. Is that not Libel?

Re:VoIP to consumers has a ways to go

[Solder Fumes]

Vonage is only as good as the telephone you plug into it. Many cheap corded and cordless phones sound terrible, especially on speakerphone.

I use Vonage and it sounds great. Yes, I did call another phone and tested the outbound quality.