Throwing some water on WiMax and VoIP providers
By Adam Gaffin, NetworkWorld.com, 01/21/05
Daniel Taylor explains why 2005 is NOT the year of WiMax:
... When a wireless operator comes to market with a WiMAX service, customers can start buying. This will be the make-or-break moment for WiMAX. Until then, this is all just silicon, paper and electrons.
David Beckemeyer, meanwhile, starts to yawn when tallking about the bold new breed of VoIP providers:
... They all represent themselves as revolutionary, disruptive forces. Well, let's see. So we give them a solid chunk of our Internet pipe, pay them for the privilege, and get back in return an analog copper pair of wires, to which we can connect a 1970's phone and it will work, almost as good as it did in the 70's even. I guess in a P.T. Barnum sort of way, it is pretty revolutionary. ...
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No No, you have it all wrong. VOIP is revolutionary in one word: Choice. Beautiful, gorgeous choice. Telcos and their cost structures exist in their present bloated form because they don’t have to compete. Ma Bell management and their unions get cozy, add fees, and make customers wait days, weeks, months for service. Why? Because they can, you have no choice. Or should I say they “could” and you “had.”
Why do VOIP operators (and wireless) offer voice mail, called ID etc for free (included)? They must compete between each other. There is not technical a reason why land-line telcos couldn't offer the same packages.
Now the next time ma bell screws up your bill, you can cancel and order up Vonage; yes you need broadband but you should have that anyway. From a pure quality standpoint VOIP service is usually a stepdown from POTS. But a technology that can change a 100 year old industry from a Soviet-like monopoly service into a cut-throat commodity free-for-all is still petty neat.
Posted by: B Man on January 21, 2005 03:11 PM
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