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VoIP As a Solution To Rural Broadband

Posted by kdawson on from the tell-it-to-the-rbocs dept.

boyko.at.netqos recommends his article up at Network Performance Daily, which notes the recent reports that up to 30% of households do not have a landline telephone, preferring a VoIP or cell-phone based solution. What to do with the miles of last-mile phone line infrastructure already in place in almost all the homes across the country? Maybe there's a solution to rural broadband by using the high-reliability frequencies reserved for voice purely for data — and using VoIP to make phone calls. From the article: "Repurposing the broadband of 0-25kHz would result in... speeds of around 14.4 kBytes/s (or 115.9 kbits/s) upload and 28.8 kBytes/s (231.3 kbits/s) download. That's not much of a speed boost. Still, if you've been plodding along on a '56.6k' modem, at speeds of 7.2kBytes/s, this would be like an oasis in the desert. And what about those phone calls? Well, if you make the same phone calls with VoIP that you were with the standard 0-4kHz landline, it would only take about 20.8kbits/s using the G.723.1 codec — that still leaves you with 80% of your broadband capacity when on the phone — and 100% of your broadband when you're off it." Only the US FCC calls 231K "broadband," but as noted it does beat dialup.

4 of 149 comments (clear)

  1. Waste of time by eln · · Score: 2, Funny

    Seems silly to spend all that time and money trying to get the FCC to change its regulations when this situation seems tailor made for a good RFC 1149 implementation. Latency is still an issue with such a setup, but bandwidth can be virtually unlimited if you have the resources.

    1. Re:Waste of time by Dekortage · · Score: 2, Funny

      Unfortunately, in rural areas, RFC 1149 datagram carriers may be actively destroyed for human sustenance. This would further increase latency, and could pose a significant security hole. In such network regions, packet sniffers tend to be numerous and very active, working on four-pronged mobility structures, and may occasionally carry fleas.

      However, within this modality, the risk of VoIP being unscrupulously wiretapped is already very low, so I wouldn't worry about it too much.

      --
      $nice = $webHosting + $domainNames + $sslCerts
  2. Re:Sounds cheaper by Amouth · · Score: 4, Funny

    i don't think "YouTube is still a painful experience" is due in any respect to your connection speed - it has alot more to do with the content and people who comment there.

    --
    '...if only "Jumping to a Conclusion" was an event in the Olympics.'
  3. so ... by B3ryllium · · Score: 3, Funny

    It's going to be Voice over IP over Voice? VoIPoV?