Decius wrote:
] I think there are some people on this site who might have good
] answers to this question.
]
] Why don't I have VoIP? I've got broadband. All my friends have
] broadband. I pull down high fidelity internet radio all the
] time. But, when I want to talk to my friends I pick up the
] phone. What is the deal?
]
] I don't even want to interconnect to the POTs system, but
] while I'm talking about this, dialpad.com used to offer free
] ad supported voice calls. Now they have a VoIP calling card
] system. Did the economics not work out or were people turned
] off by the quality level??
]
] Is there some software out there for this that I just don't
] know about? Is there some technical problem that prevents this
] from working, or is the problem economic?
]
] Aren't the service providers looking for ways to expand
] bandwidth utilization? Why aren't they working on this stuff?
]
]
] What IS the deal?

I actually had a very lengthy and indepth reply, but my browser ate it, so here is the abridged version:

There is no singular answer to this question. In fact, I would answer it with the statement that we do indeed have VoIP, and "why would you want VoIP?"

First, VoIP is alive and thriving. There are a lot of businesses that offer it, either as a carrier, reseller, or broker. Most of the traffic originates in the US and other G7 countries and terminates in Latin America, Pac Rim, and other '3rd world' countries. Prepaid phone cards over VoIP nets is a booming business, so much so that state owned telecom in some of the terminating countries are passing laws making it illegal. I would guess that we're nearing a half a billion minutes, as the last data I saw was that we were billing in the 10's of billions of minutes and this was in 2001.

There are several companies that offer clients and gateways. Google around. www.net2phone.com comes to mind. I have also seen devices that convert TDM based T1's into IP for transport. I wish these would've been around during my BlueStar days. We could've sold the hell out of a PBX tie line alternative.

So why don't you see mainstream VoIP? Why aren't major carriers utilizing it? Well, some are. Chances are, if you make a call to a remote place, it might be using VoIP. But then there's economics and monopoly too.

First, what you have today is very economical. POTS works, is robust, is cheap, and paid for. Digital switching is 30 years old. Most switches were upgraded back in the 80s, so it's hard to compete with 100 year old plant, 30 year old switches, and depreciation schedules that were started before I was born. Most switches in remote locations are actually MORE ADVANCED than what we have here. China has ISDN capable switches in villages that don't even have ubiquitous electricity.

Compare that with installing a new VoIP softswitch, which is expensive, requires training your guys onhow to work it, and doesn't even integrate with your billing system all that well. You might be able to scale it better than POTS, someday, but the costs are simply not worth it. Besides, LD prices are continuing to fall, so margins are getting pressed even more. We're talking about an industry where a half of a penny can get you a promotion or fired. Investing large cap ex in it, from a carrier standpoint, is stupid if you already have existing circuit switched products.

Finally, RBOCs will never have any incentive to deploy VoIP or any other advanced technologies because it fucks up the revenue models. Why use VoIP or VoDSL when you can sell over priced T1? Why deploy ANYTHING if you don't have to? Everything is already paid for. Everytime someone makes a call, it's almost pure profit.

RE: Why don't I have VoIP?