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Strategies & Market Trends : Piffer OT - And Other Assorted Nuts -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jorj X Mckie who wrote (33920)	5/16/2000 6:38:00 PM
From: Alan Smithee	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 63513

I sure hope they don't go after funphone.com!

To: Jorj X Mckie who wrote (33920)	5/16/2000 7:16:00 PM
From: username	Respond to of 63513

That is interesting. I see a few problems in the "Internet telephone services" concept. The main one is that in some cases (FireTalk) there is no telephone. If the politicians want to define "Internet telephone service" as something connected to a "telephone", and use the Webster's definition, "an instrument or system for conveying speech over distances by converting sound into electrical impulses sent over a wire" then Dialpad loses and FireTalk wins. NetRadio might fit that definition. What about wav files? Not to mention "electrical impulses" and "wire". All we need now is another law that defines the difference between several different kinds of bytes. If it's a byte of somebody talking, then it's a phone call. If it's a picture, then that's a fax. Or a letter. But if it is a letter, then that's the Post Office, not the phone company. Music? That's radio, that's the FCC. There's a horror story waiting to be written. The big phone companies say this new thing "isn't fair". Yeah, right. Netscape wasn't fair. I agree with the argument that what is being transmitted is bits and bytes. I use FireTalk. It's not like a phone call yet, but it is pretty good,, and it is free. I like free.