Charles: It really makes you wonder why the jurisdiction of the FCC is attached to something no one truly understands, its like putting a Rubik's cube in a babies hand then making it understand. Wow, no way man! <gg> FCC + Telephony-IP = controllable TEMPEST !
Why should the FCC be allowed to stand in the middle of a whirl-wind, make demands, catch technology for a milli-second, then make plans for the 'tempest' which is changing as we speak. As though they're going to tell the future? <gg>
You just can't do that holding a large stick, waving it at everyone while wind speeds are gale force inside the whirl-wind.
With technology, the more they-the-FCC knows, the less they truly understand. After a year of FCC e-mails, regarding everything from Clec-Emancipation to ITSP Reciprocal-Compensation, I think NOT .......the FCC will act in any way shape or form regarding IP restrictions. By the time they do, the next tornado will have struck, heading in the opposite direction, so the ambulance chase begins again.
I was going over a few late-year, one-liner, paragraph-statements that I copied in 98, that I wanted to share tonight. Nothing really special here, just some great statements that were made over the year from folks within my reach, and allot of magazine articles>>>
Complicating things further is the search for crossover solutions in which the legacy IN infrastructure is leveraged to maximum advantage, even though virtually everyone looking at making packet voice a toll-quality service believes a purely IP version of IN offering the same and many more features but with a different architecture is the
ultimate goal.
In regards to the statement made by the FCC on a " a case by case basis" for charge's to ITSP's in the local loop. I think this left a huge door opening for the RBOC's in their next "wicked" step.
By and large, even the new breed of "data-centric CLECs" are targeting business users.
IP version of IN offering the same and many more features but with a different architecture is the ultimate goal.
Though most ITSPs have been developing a legal position to keep from paying fees to the traditional telcos, some ITSPs are finding that, in this highly competitive market, it might be more advantageous to pony up the fees and work jointly with the deep-pocketed telcos to grow their business.
In 1999 looking at traditional Telecom operators as they will start
using IP-telephony in their switches (not with stand-alone gateways but with built in PSTN/H.323 gateways on the backplane.
In 3 or 4 years we will have 400Kbit/s to 2Mbit/s capacity on the mobiles (depending on the cell size). We will have GSM mobile handsets communicating directly the IP-network without any transit/tandem node interference via the PSTN.
Bits are bits, even if they are high valued bits, how do you separate them! If you supply megabit data flow, you supply "free Voice", Voice is a low bandwidth application.
Since the migration of switching functions are changing to the network edge, the PC becomes a communications terminal with launching & receiving packets with no active intervention by the circuit-switching network. So in a real sense, PC's and web-enabled devices themselves become the "signal switching device" communicating Gateways"
Remember when it comes to voice, quality and simplicity are more important than the fact that is being carried on an IP network. Billions of dollars are flowing into IP telephony companies. The next investment wave for these IP carriers will be in billing, customer care systems, and telecom class services.
Over the next 12 to 18 months, the objective for IP telephony will be to develop hybrid networks and services that allow new IP telephony services to "bolt on" to the existing telephony infrastructure, ensuring new end-user aplications and new revenue sources for service providers.
The future of IP Telephony is not just about saving money on calls made between sites. Its about new applications that take advantage of the factthat IP telephony provides a cheaper, more efficient, and flexible transport for voice than the traditional PSTN. Cost, flexibility and efficiency.
Using intelligent IP telephony gateways to create a virtual network PBX is really what the definition ought to be for a toll bypass application.
Transparent is the key word, it removes the need to have all PBXs from the same vendor, and makes it very simple (transparent) for your employees to call across the corporation.
Businesses are demanding more than simple dial tone over a network, and are unwilling to give up their conventional telephony points of reference, including embedded PBX systems, features and PSTN reliability, just to save toll charges.
You no longer "switch" voice, you "pack-et".
And while H.323 will be supported in the endpoints - there are forces behind additional protocols like SIP, SGCP and IPDC which can't be ignored.
The initiatives of "multimedia IP applications", "IP data applications", and data-driven virtual private network services are being guided by standard bodies such as the IETF, bring IP closer to the vision of ""integrated IP and application optimized networking"".
With multi-companies stitching together your CTI, you can't expect seamless performance.
Future networks will consist of a core, an access layer, and the critical service layer that actually supports customer use of the
network.
Software is a way to deliver functionality. You code it, put it on a disk, give it to your customers. But what if you made it run in a browser, put it on a server and delivered it over the Internet instead? You might give it another name, you might call it a service, ....... but you'd really be in the same business.
The Telephony Orchestra is just tuning up.
The next generation portals will provide both an integrated back-end infratructure and an integrated front-end interface for linking customers, vendors, and suppliers---true electronic data interchange over the net.
IP-Predictions are always a fools game, because the devil can be in the details.
Unless you make every phone in the world an IP-connected device, you're missing the bulk of the near-term opportunity taking advantage of the benefits the Internet has to offer.
Meanwhile, all the major central office (CO) switch vendors are talking about offering IP telephony cards that can fit into their large circuit-based switches. But to date no such products are vavailable.
Hope that wasn't to boring, cheers !
ps...Charles, in my opinion, I would not be heading down the the Telecom IP-Link alone. Give me multiple product development partners, multiple dial-up customers, and plenty of service, that's whats going to keep smaller FNet type's around thought 2002.
If my company offered internet connections, a telehony gateway, a cti telephony app, backed by service galore, I would setup a package that within 1 year could possibly bring in over 5 million customers within the LA Metroplex. There are allot of long distance connections within a 100 mile radius of LA.
So you give away the 20 buck fee for access, unlimited.
So you give away access to the bank that provides customer service to your internet service, they don't charge any access fee for online usage.
So you give away 10 megs for their personal site too.
But you charge one montly price for premium A-service
A=Local Access within X-mile-radius = LA basin 1 montly LD rate price)
A=Unified messaging, browser-controlled.
A=.xx cents a minute, unlimited anywhere outside the LA basin.
Your premium service could be 10bucks for breaking even with free-internet access. Maybe somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 dollars for local-LA-calls and unified messaging. For fifty bucks, if thats profitable and maybe throw in a CTI mini-pc-gateway for a few extra bucks that add to the premium bill.
Look at what Delta-three did with their x-mas special. 3 million onlookers, 100,000 sign up. Give the masses somthing free (with one heck of a marketing plan behind it), lookout C.T.I. City, here we come !!!
A combined "I-individual-Contact-Center", that links you a E-all-emcompassing-Commerce-Center.
You watch, someone this year will do something along these lines. Bet on it, its coming our way. Imagine what AOL/Netscape are IP-tinking right now? <gg>
CS, what would you do with bundledbookmarks.com as a new company startup? <smiling>
Just a few lingering thoughts.....
sTempy |
