Denver, we're in general agreement here:
>>This is why I maintain the opinion that voice over IP will still be several years in coming, knowing what it took to get circuit switched voice over HFC up and running.<<
However, certain early adopters (I'm referring to service providers now) have seen fit to proceed with first and second generation platforms (where even the third generation plats are still what I would consider bread board stage by carrier standards), aided by bandaids and spit. These fit the Internet motif of try it and if it doesn't work, fix it. Not a bad thing in itself, but I'm not going to talk with new prospects over the phone with it either.
To get a sense of the many and varied approaches to VoIP that are competing for attention, see Gordon Cook's Internet Report. There is an abstract in the March 1999 issue in the "past issues" section, oddly enough, at
cookreport.com
...wherein Francois Menard speaks about the difference between internet telephony and IP telephony. Menard paints an accurate picture, IMO, of three evolving modalities for VoIP. It's only an abstract, like I stated, but it's lengthy and detailed enough to tell the story about some of the many personalities VoIP is donning these days.
Let's hope for the early ITSP providers' sake that they are fixing it in concert with the many and evolving standards that will eventually make this thing fly, if such a climactic notion is even valid, anymore.
Regards, Frank Coluccio |
