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Supermarket VOIP
chuckT writes "Tesco, the UK's largest supermarket chain, has announced plans to sell a VOIP handset and connection through their stores. Given that one out of every eight pounds, spent on shopping in the UK goes to Tesco, and the UK has one of the highest broadband takeup rates around, is this the end for the classic telecoms providers like BT?"
The BT service offers free calls to UK landlines at evenings and weekends, at a cost of £4.99 a month
This is totally kick-ass! Where else can you pay £4.99 to make free calls?
NOWHERE! That's where!
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
VOIP has many problems, e.g. unlike regular telephones on regular telephone lines, they do not work during power cuts. They can also cause problems when being used for emergency calls, as the location of the person cannot be traced easily (if at all.) Until the problems are sorted out, I don't think people will be jumping onto VOIP phones.
Unless there is a wireless grid the users of voip will still be dependent on the cables coming into their house. Those cables for the most part are owned by the telco/cable companies. It's not really an end to the Telco's it is more of a transition of services offered.
I'm a big fan of VoIP (I've moved many friends and family to various companies). I can't wait until there are more programs available to let me use my PDA-bluetooth-tether-cell combo (150kbps download nearly everywhere) to talk without the cell network. I believe T-Mobile will actually help transition their users to VoIP as they build a faster network (and make their money that way).
The big problem I have with VoIP is it still seems to rely on people wanting to contact POTS numbers. When will we see a replacement for the old phone number?
The e-mail address isn't a bad idea, but I honestly don't want to share that with some people. A new number isn't memorable. Names are too generic and duplicated (there are 3 Adam Dada's that I've found in the past 3 years).
What is the solution for the "Follow Me" signature that we can use as our VoIP contact? Is the future settings up 3 or 4 addresses so we can give friends, family and tele-marketters different numbers?
They lock down the hardware so that the market has lots of used VoIP hardware that is 100% useless. I can find gobs of Vonnage SIP phones on ebay for dirt but are locked to Vonnage.
I just wish these companies would be required to be friendlier and unlock the hardware after the "contract" is up.
Cellphone companies do thew same crap. I had to threaten to sue AT&T wireless because they locked my personal phone to their service. I purchased an unlocked phone myself used their service and their scumbag service rep locked my phone. these companies really need to learn what customer service is and that the customer's property needs to be released to them at the end of thwe contract.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
UK consumers will get the "pay 4.99 and have free calls" because at the moment they pay BT a standing line charge and then pay for each call (time based charging) on top....
This is exactly the kind of thing that makes people angry, move to other continents and start a Revolution against the reigning Empire.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
None of the problems seen as particular to VOIP (in the sense of Vonage at home etc) actually are and, besides, in the corporate environment, it has been a done deal for years. I haven't seen a large office that wasn't using IP phones in some years.
POTS doesn't run on magic fairy dust, it requires electricity, but it is assumed to be well backed-up, although it still suffers problems of cut lines etc. In "real" emergencies like earthquakes and storms, POTS goes out ALL THE TIME. How about the growing tide of wireless-only people? 911 problems are the same, towers go out, etc. With VOIP, you're running over POTS or cable. If YOU have a backup power system, much as is required on the provider end, there's little if any systemic difference in reliability--and really, most people no longer use telephones that run only on the power of the phone line itself, so while your telephone line may be just dandy, it doesn't do much good when the phone itself is dead.
I doubt it.
For a start, Tesco's on-line systems to date have sucked. I subscribed to Tesco Downloads to get a legal music download I wanted, and the UI was so bad that having let me sign up with a particular e-mail address, I then couldn't log in using it because it was a character too long for the field on the web form! I tried to contact them, but... there were no contact details, anywhere, and mails to webmaster at both the Tesco Downloads and the main Tesco site went unanswered. This doesn't exactly make me want to try relying on their VOIP system.
In addition to Tesco's apparent incompetence, BT (or the cable companies, depending on who you're with) still make a significant amount of money from those broadband subscribers. I hardly use my landline any more, but I still have to cough up several quid a month for BT line rental so that my broadband ISP and I can communicate. The actual cost of my calls on BT represents around 0.1% of the money I pay them, since they've been offering calls-for-almost-nothing for months anyway.
In other words, BT are now effectively an infrastructure company and not a services company, and their own phone service is almost free. Why do I need VOIP again?
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
Dude! Us Americans could be effing RICH! We have more fat and weight-gaining products than the rest of the world combined - surely we'll make more than enough to pay off our natl. debt.
P.S. Americans think the world revolves around us because it does! The fat of America actually creates its own gravitational field stronger than the Earth's, which means it rotates around us. This is also why we have so many anorexic people here, they weren't heavy enough to remain where they were because our gravity is stronger. Watch out, McDonald's stock is up...
The 'Net is a waste of time, and that's exactly what's right about it. - William Gibson
Doubtful. Most people don't realize (at least here in the US) that the phone companies own the interconnects, and thus, the backbone of the internet. If you put the telco's out of business with the internet, guess where the internet goes?
Kind of like the theory that if you want to get rid of heart disease, remove everyone's heart. That is the only quick, easy, and sure fire way to do it. Once all the hearts have been removed, there will be no more heart disease, or cancer, or crime, or overpopulation......
...because what good is power unless you can abuse it?
Trust me, there are a small but growing number of people in the UK who are horrified at the amount of money Tesco makes.
http://www.tescopoly.org/
"Remember, every little hurts" is a piss-take of the Tesco slogan "Every Little Helps" which grates me every time I hear it.
Tesco are also bad for the environment, as trucks delivering to Tesco in a year, which in 2002 stood at 1,150,000 deliveries, clock up a total mileage of 140 million miles (224 million km).
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silas
hobbit
It's one eighth of all retail spending.
If you really want to get het up about them consider this: online, they take one pound in every four.