As someone who works in this industry, I thought I'd share some of the future of telecomm for those who aren't 'in the know'. All communication lines going to any endpoint (home, business, sensors, etc) are quickly moving to an IP based data network. Unfortunately, there are two problems that governments and current telephone companies face: 1) Roughly 50% of their voice revenue stream comes from per minute connection charges, other carrier access charges, & regulation charges (govn't). These will evaporate when subscribers move to data driven VoIP (ie: you pay a flat fee for DSL or cable modem bandwidth now, and it can run all your voice calls to anywhere in the world). Eventually the PSTN connection part will no longer be necessary, so Vonage will disappear as we know it today, but it has finally woken up the telcos to what the future will bring. 2) Pretty much the other half of their revenue stream comes from the 'premium' voice feature services (call waiting, text messaging, etc), all of which are quickly moving from the class 5 switch into the phones themselves (aka: free).
What do you do when your primary revenue stream evaporates? Fight it in the courts or with govn't officials. Remember, govn'ts have been taking a nice chunk of that revenue for themselves as well.
We will have to move to a bandwidth & quality of service (QoS) based payment style. A minimum bandwidth is given for a flat rate (which will include -all- voice), and extra bandwidth will be provided on demand at an agreed QoS. The higher the bandwidth & QoS, the higher the fee.
Things to watch out for: VoIP everywhere, SIP phones/services, VoWLAN, current voice carriers moving their infrastructure to their IP networks, and govn't regulations dictating that comm lines (called data services & unregulated) become regulated for QoS.
The companies that move to this model last will not survive. They aren't going to like this.:-)
I, for one, am fed up with pompous game companies that turn up their noses at game demos. I don't want your namby-pamby fake benchmark program to tell me numbers. I want to run around in one of your sample levels and test the 'feel' of the engine myself. Yes, it may say that it will do 60fps on my system, but if I buy the game only to find out that it can drop to 15 fps during many scenes (or it plain out sucks), I have no recourse! Once the software is opened, very few companies will simply take it back if it's not 'broken' - they're too scared of software pirates.
How quickly they forget that demos are what convinced people to buy their products in the first place.
1) Make sure no ISPs/Email carriers believe how easy it is to stop this 'problem' 2) Make sure to get the government involved with your company to 'provide' a complex solution 3) ??? 4) Profit!!
This is trivially easy. If you provide email services, keep an address book for your users (most have this already). If it's not in the address book, return the request with a 'not in address book message'. 1) Since -most- SPAM has an invalid reply-to addr, most spam is now gone. The SPAM marketers realize their crap isn't getting through, so they either provide valid return addrs, or switch to alternative methods.
The sender can reply with a message that would be put in a special 'status pending' folder for the user. At the recipient's leisure, they could either add the addr to their addr list, or delete them all (aka folder trash). One click, and they're all gone. The email provider could also have a preference to autodelete the non-addr book email.
2) Real money generating option proposed by Cringely (www.pbs.org). Setup 2 addr books - one for free emails, and another for everyone else. Setup a micropayment system that requires emailers -not- in the free addr book to pay the disclosed amount (shown in the reply mail from point one). The payment goes to the emailee with a portion going to the ISP/email provider. Now, marketing is paying for the server time, and the users are happy to have their connections paid for (depending on the number of ads).
1) Video phones. I have kids, and would pay to give them a video phone so that we could communicate via sight instead of just sound. If I lived there, I'd buy one too so that the rest of my family could join in -> virtual teleconference anyone? As someone who also has family overseas, this becomes even more important.
- Local Industries -
2) Distance learning. People in the town could realistically take classes from the university without having to physically attend class. Even better, the class could be taped and purchased for download (digitally) for less than the cost of actual enrollment, but the student base could go way up without major facility improvements.
3) True downloadable video on demand. Local servers in the town, perhaps even owned by the town, but with distribution rights, could sell/rent downloadable videos to the residents. Tivos can already file share within the house - why not across the neighborhood?
4) Yes, online games would rock. More importantly, localized community games would -scream-. How about hosting bridge/chess/etc parlor type games within the community? For a small fee to cover server expenses, a whole bunch of the older generation could play together from their homes, and TALK AT THE SAME TIME. Again, this is another local industry that could be started.
5) Town meeting multi-casts. Now, people don't have to crowd into some small room to discuss town policies. They can watch it online, and use VoIP to conference in (with a moderator of course).
Of course, these are just a few. If you can concentrate on local industries, more useful applications for the technology will appear.
Best of luck. Maybe I'll consider moving a little further north if this is put in place.:-)
Big countries always think they are first.
Singapore has had broadband access for everyone
for a long time. It's about time other govnts
begin doing it as well!:-)
Personally, I like pointed ads! The greatist thing about Slashdot's ads is that they are pointed at techo/geek/Linux/AltOS people like myself. Since they are all related to items I'm interested in, I don't mind. Besides, an ad at the top of the page is fine - it keeps slashdot free, and I like free.:-)
The problem with generic news sites is that they either don't know their audience, or don't know how to target ads specific to the user reading their site (based on account logins or whatever). Why would I click on an ad that doesn't interest me?
Slashdot Mirror
Hey phoenix321 - I'm glad you liked my statement enough to cut and paste it from a prior article... ;-)
As someone who works in this industry, I thought I'd share some of the future of telecomm for those who aren't 'in the know'. All communication lines going to any endpoint (home, business, sensors, etc) are quickly moving to an IP based data network. Unfortunately, there are two problems that governments and current telephone companies face:
:-)
1) Roughly 50% of their voice revenue stream comes from per minute connection charges, other carrier access charges, & regulation charges (govn't). These will evaporate when subscribers move to data driven VoIP (ie: you pay a flat fee for DSL or cable modem bandwidth now, and it can run all your voice calls to anywhere in the world). Eventually the PSTN connection part will no longer be necessary, so Vonage will disappear as we know it today, but it has finally woken up the telcos to what the future will bring.
2) Pretty much the other half of their revenue stream comes from the 'premium' voice feature services (call waiting, text messaging, etc), all of which are quickly moving from the class 5 switch into the phones themselves (aka: free).
What do you do when your primary revenue stream evaporates? Fight it in the courts or with govn't officials. Remember, govn'ts have been taking a nice chunk of that revenue for themselves as well.
We will have to move to a bandwidth & quality of service (QoS) based payment style. A minimum bandwidth is given for a flat rate (which will include -all- voice), and extra bandwidth will be provided on demand at an agreed QoS. The higher the bandwidth & QoS, the higher the fee.
Things to watch out for: VoIP everywhere, SIP phones/services, VoWLAN, current voice carriers moving their infrastructure to their IP networks, and govn't regulations dictating that comm lines (called data services & unregulated) become regulated for QoS.
The companies that move to this model last will not survive. They aren't going to like this.
I, for one, am fed up with pompous game companies that turn up their noses at game demos. I don't want your namby-pamby fake benchmark program to tell me numbers. I want to run around in one of your sample levels and test the 'feel' of the engine myself. Yes, it may say that it will do 60fps on my system, but if I buy the game only to find out that it can drop to 15 fps during many scenes (or it plain out sucks), I have no recourse! Once the software is opened, very few companies will simply take it back if it's not 'broken' - they're too scared of software pirates.
How quickly they forget that demos are what convinced people to buy their products in the first place.
No demo, no sale.
FDU = Federally Dependant Users
1) Make sure no ISPs/Email carriers believe how easy it is to stop this 'problem'
2) Make sure to get the government involved with your company to 'provide' a complex solution
3) ???
4) Profit!!
This is trivially easy. If you provide email services, keep an address book for your users (most have this already). If it's not in the address book, return the request with a 'not in address book message'.
1) Since -most- SPAM has an invalid reply-to addr, most spam is now gone. The SPAM marketers realize their crap isn't getting through, so they either provide valid return addrs, or switch to alternative methods.
The sender can reply with a message that would be put in a special 'status pending' folder for the user. At the recipient's leisure, they could either add the addr to their addr list, or delete them all (aka folder trash). One click, and they're all gone. The email provider could also have a preference to autodelete the non-addr book email.
2) Real money generating option proposed by Cringely (www.pbs.org). Setup 2 addr books - one for free emails, and another for everyone else. Setup a micropayment system that requires emailers -not- in the free addr book to pay the disclosed amount (shown in the reply mail from point one). The payment goes to the emailee with a portion going to the ISP/email provider. Now, marketing is paying for the server time, and the users are happy to have their connections paid for (depending on the number of ads).
- Long Distance related -
1) Video phones. I have kids, and would pay to give them a video phone so that we could communicate via sight instead of just sound. If I lived there, I'd buy one too so that the rest of my family could join in -> virtual teleconference anyone? As someone who also has family overseas, this becomes even more important.
- Local Industries -
2) Distance learning. People in the town could realistically take classes from the university without having to physically attend class. Even better, the class could be taped and purchased for download (digitally) for less than the cost of actual enrollment, but the student base could go way up without major facility improvements.
3) True downloadable video on demand. Local servers in the town, perhaps even owned by the town, but with distribution rights, could sell/rent downloadable videos to the residents. Tivos can already file share within the house - why not across the neighborhood?
4) Yes, online games would rock. More importantly, localized community games would -scream-. How about hosting bridge/chess/etc parlor type games within the community? For a small fee to cover server expenses, a whole bunch of the older generation could play together from their homes, and TALK AT THE SAME TIME. Again, this is another local industry that could be started.
5) Town meeting multi-casts. Now, people don't have to crowd into some small room to discuss town policies. They can watch it online, and use VoIP to conference in (with a moderator of course).
Of course, these are just a few. If you can concentrate on local industries, more useful applications for the technology will appear. Best of luck. Maybe I'll consider moving a little further north if this is put in place. :-)
Big countries always think they are first. Singapore has had broadband access for everyone for a long time. It's about time other govnts begin doing it as well! :-)
The problem with generic news sites is that they either don't know their audience, or don't know how to target ads specific to the user reading their site (based on account logins or whatever). Why would I click on an ad that doesn't interest me?