Voice over IP

Dan Gillmor: "In the past month, I've done my part to undermine a monopoly. How? By making phone calls." [Scripting News]

This is an interesting read on the state of voice over IP (VOIP) services. The linked article that reviews the Vonage service is also a good read.

VOIP has been around for quite a while now and seems to be a good example of a slowly maturing technology. I have looked at it a couple different times (demo units from 3com and Intertel) and generally written it off as a nice idea that just doesn't work. However, now it looks like if the companies can just keep plugging away at it, eventually the services might actually become a suitable replacement for the local phone company. This is a bit surprising to me as the previous demos I've had were really quite horrible.

Posted by Kimbro Staken