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Technology Stocks : Voice-on-the-net (VON), VoIP, Internet (IP) Telephony -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: SteveG who wrote (658)	5/30/1998 1:06:00 PM
From: Frank A. Coluccio	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 3178

>I understand that they can begin negotiations prior to this.< No doubt. <g> We may be viewing the constructs of the IP world with a little bit of too much reverence and awe for the incumbents in that space, as we may be assuming that it is a constant that previous players have the lead advantage in. This is not the case. The TCP/IP model, through RFCs and constant refinement and upgrades to accommodate new demands such as multicasting and voice features, is an emerging profile of new capabilities, and this quality tends to level off the playing field to some extent over time. It may even yield the 'advantage' to new thinkers in some respects, who have not been burdened (read: carrying onerous tonnage of baggage) with the traditional physical layer constraints of the past, in this space. Consider that the VoIP Forum recommendations are tailored to accommodate conferencing and voice issues, as well as multicasting, conferencing and billing settlement capabilities, etc., and each of these requires going into the Layer Three stack and beyond and below, to come up with fixes that mimic the old model that the PSTN cadre has mastered over the decades. For the traditional 'data vendors,' this equates to break-away thinking and not just a little bit of pain for the die-hards, but for the incumbent voice specialists, it's same-o same-o with a new set of transport parameters to contend with. It isn't that simple, but I think you see my point. These offsetting characteristics of both sides' evolutionary paths (if such a comparison must be acknowledged) tend to cancel themselves out, when attempting to assign the "advantage" to either side, wouldn't you say? But then there are the larger issues of the IP routing and management paradigm that no doubt still lend themselves to the expertise and prowess that the Ciscos and Bays have mastered over the years, and for this larger context, I see your point as well. These two areas are not direct overlaps, however, and I can see the emergence of traditional voice specialists making huge advances here, despite their late entry. Regards, Frank Coluccio