ASUS Integrates VOIP and PSTN Into Motherboards

yahyamf writes "ASUS recently announced that their TeleSky telecom adapter will now be included in two of their motherboards. The TeleSky converts an ordinary house phone into a multi-functional Skype phone. With one jack connected to the house phone and the other to the ground telephone line, the TeleSky can switch the house phone connection between the PSTN and VoIP networks. While it sounds interesting, how would this compare to the dedicated VOIP adapters available from SIPURA and others?"

Comments

Fallback

[Southpaw018]

To answer poster's question on comparison: the main advantage (IMO) to having PSTN access is fallback.

I can think of some cases where long distance might be different, and you might want to use VoIP for some numbers and PSTN for others, but we just implemented a new PBX at my office with a feature wherein if our VoIP calls encounter a certain amount of packet loss, if they drop below a certain audio quality (not enough bandwidth available), or if we just plain old feel like it, we can switch our voice access from our T1 to our four old fashioned copper n' wire lines.

It provides security. Bosses like security. ;)

Telephone reliability a thing of the past?

[Iphtashu Fitz]

I was just talking to somebody the other day about the reliability of VOIP, cell phones, etc. in case of emergencies. I remember as a kid when Ma Bell was a monopoly here in the US. We rented our phones from them, couldn't hook up additional phones, answering machines, or any other "unauthorized" devices to our phone line. I also remember when deregulation began and suddenly we suddenly owned the phones that we had rented for so long, and got stickers from the phone company to stick on the bottom of the phones indicating that they were now ours and not theirs.

But I digress. One other thing I recall clearly is that even if there was a prolonged power failure, even one lasting multiple days, the telephones always worked. The power needed to run the entire telco system is provided from the phone company. Each central office has huge banks of lead-acid batteries and backup generators to provide electricity in the event of a power failure. You could pretty much guarantee that your phone would work for days while nothing else in your house did, a comforting thought if any emergencies arose.

Today, however, with the advent of voip, cell phones, etc. it seems like the promise of always-availble telephones is bound to disappear eventually. VOIP surely won't work if your cable modem or DSL router (or your ASUS motherboard) doesn't have any power. How will you recharge your cell phone during a power failure once you've drained its battery?

Don't get me wrong - I think all this new technology is great, but at what cost? Many people these days probably don't realize that hardwired land lines provide a reliability that all these modern gadgets can't in times of emergencies. I just wonder if the telcos will eventually give up on providing that reliability if they feel it's no longer providing a costly & desired service.