Slashdot Mirror
eBay Wants Voice Phone Free In Five Years
kmk writes "In a few short years, users can expect to make telephone calls for free, with no per-minute charges, as part of a package of services through which carriers make money on advertising or transaction fees, eBay's chief executive said on Wednesday."
Great. So they'll have voice recognition listen to all of your conversations and interrupt with interesting advertisements relating to the conversation you're currently having with the other person. *sigh*
I'll keep paying the $20/mo, thanks.
Try GPRS while travelling in europe.
Vodaphone charge £10 per megabyte. And belatedly told me that my 100mb allowance didn't apply. And I left my machine on and Windows Update had kicked in...
The final bill was more than the laptop cost.
OTOH in the UK only a complete idiot would pay for a landline call - multiple companies offer unlimited free UK calling, mostly without any monthly fee either.
Presuming eBay plans to be as free with information about my telephone habits as they are with information from my auction account, I think I'll stick with my phone bill, thanks.
On a more general note, though I'm sure this is subject to change, right now my phone bill is the least of my worries, frankly. The land line is a bargain considering what it does for me every day, and it just plain works... I've lost my power, my internet, my cable for periods of time, but I've been living in my town for over a decade and not once has my phone gone out for even a minute in all that time. Figure out a way to deliver heat through the internet - that's the bill I'm worried about this winter.
It Is the Nature of Information to Transgress Artificial Boundaries
Off topic I know...