* More reader feedback on voice vs. data costs
In the last newsletter, we discussed some of the feedback we’ve received so far on whether you’re still tracking costs for WAN transport for data vs. voice separately. This time, we’re especially pleased to share some feedback from our long-time associate, Bob Mercer.
In the last newsletter, we discussed some of the feedback we’ve received so far on whether you’re still tracking costs for WAN transport for data vs. voice separately. This time, we’re especially pleased to share some feedback from our long-time associate, Bob Mercer.
Bob hit on yet another component that we probably should have included as a cost center – courier services. Remember when our communications consisted of phones, mail, express mail (primarily Fed Ex), and, if you were really high tech – facsimile?
Bob wrote, “I remember well the days, as recently as even 15 years or less – of racing along the back roads between our office and the FedEx office to beat the 7 p.m. deadline. Once, I walked in there at about 6:52, and the clerk said ‘What are you doing here so EARLY tonight!’ And, 20 cents/min. for voice calls might have even been low at that time. Somewhere in that same time frame, we bought our first 9.6K bit/sec modem for something like $900, and were happy for the high speed at which it transmitted.”
And this was after the price for 9.6K bit/sec modems had fallen precipitously into the “consumer” price range and no longer required a dedicated four-wire circuit.
And just a reminder that we’re still collecting data for the quantitative portion of the question. We do realize, though, that some of the questions may be more difficult than we anticipated. One reader replied, “I found one big problem with the survey. It presumes a differentiation between voice transport and data transport. That distinction is blurring now, and I believe it’ll be gone in 3 to 5 years. In the future, voice is data!”
We couldn’t agree more.
