Read this today
He says within 10 years, people will ''buy a flat chunk of bandwidth'' and use that to surf the web, make phone calls around the world and receive television.
Thought of this thread.
thestar.com
New firm offers unlimited calls via Internet
Residential customers get long distance plus Web access for $19.95
HAMILTON - Get ready for the next wave in telecommunications technology.
An upstart company is offering unlimited North American long distance telephone service for $19.95 per month to residential customers, along with unlimited dial-up Internet access.
The service is available in 10 different cities in Canada, including the Hamilton area, and uses Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology to relay long distance calls around the continent.
Subscribers dial a local number on their phone, which leads to the Internet gateway in downtown Hamilton.
A dial tone is heard. The customer keys in the long distance number and the call is relayed over the Internet to the city desired where it is sent over local telephone lines for the remainder of the journey.
Toronto-based Orbit Canada Inc. says it is the first company to offer a national long distance telephone service over the Internet in Canada.
Several similar companies are operating in the United States and others are expected to start operating in Canada in the coming months. Such businesses do not require Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission approval because the regulatory agency has decided not to try to regulate the Internet.
Doug Lloyd, vice president technology of Orbit Canada, said:''There is no required equipment, contracts or software. There are no hidden costs. And the first month is free.
''For $19.95 per month, it gives you unlimited Internet and unlimited long distance. You can use either or both,''he said.
The development is interesting because many predict the days of long distance, per-minute telephone charges will soon come to end in the face of increased use of the Internet for voice communications.
A Frost & Sullivan study predicted the North American Internet protocol telephony market will grow from $265 million (U.S.) in 1999 to over $130 billion (U.S.) in 2006 with traffic increasing from 1.3 billion minutes to 2.6 trillion minutes.
It also found that 24 per cent of businesses plan to use voice over Internet services within one year.
Internet author Jim Carroll says he believes the Internet will eventually become the preferred means of voice communication.
''It is one of the fastest growing areas on line. It's certainly one that is getting a huge degree of attention from everybody in the telecommunications sector.
''The concept of a long distance call charged by the minute will become a quaint anachronism of the 20th century,'' said Carroll.
He says within 10 years, people will ''buy a flat chunk of bandwidth'' and use that to surf the web, make phone calls around the world and receive television.
VoIP technology puts the voice information in ''packets'' to transfer the voice communication over the Net.
Early versions of VoIP technology required both people in the telephone conversation to have special software and hardware in their respective personal computers.
But with the new technology, no computer is required. Only standard phones are needed.
A reporter tried the technology and found there was no noticeable difference in sound quality between Internet-relayed calls and regular long-distance calls. |
