Comments on: AT&T buy shows how far voice calling has fallen

Phone giants unite to face a Net-driven future, with their basic service likely to end up a giveaway.

[Lite Rocker]

Here's the funny part

the phone companies will gouge the consumers and keep any "savings" as profit increases.

Add in all the misc state taxes and surcharges and VOIP has telcos CLEARLY BEAT!

(at least until net VOIP startes getting taxed)

i just switched from mainstream to cable phone service at a $25/monthly savings for the exact same service.

the phone companies are doing too little too late.

[TheMidnightCoder]

What about rural America?

I don't have broadband and cannot get it. No DSL either. I still have a modem. I bet the first tax will be....

[Crunchy Doodle]

It's a matter of reliability for me.

I live in Los Angeles and have Time Warner Cable service and Road Runner as an ISP. I would be quite upset if my phone service had to depend on the reliability of the internet. Besides going down from time to time for scheduled maintenance, the internet is often just clogged full of Trojans, worms and zombies taking up all the bandwidth.

My land-line is solid and reliable. If somehow the internet could become that solid and reliable, then they can talk about using it for general voice service.

Bye.

[GEBERWEIN]

Rural reliability

Reliability is also a problem when it is dependent upon the home computer, which usually does not work when the power is off. And, in a large part of the country there is no high speed anything unless is is by satellite. One more thing 9-1-1 does not work the way it does with a wired phone. Be prepared to explain exactly where you are because the location stuff is not there. VoIP on 9-1-1 is a ten year leap back in technology. And until the 9-1-1 tax is applied to these services it probably won't change. Good luck!
Gerry

A sensible purchase for SBC

SBC's purchase of AT&T makes good business sense. SBC enjoys
the incumbent role in a few large regions of the country. They
derive substantial revenue for providing the last mile of service.
Providing local infrastructure is expensive but vital to
maintaining their customer base.

AT&T divested themselves of their peripheral business
components (i.e. wireless) and is now a lean b-to-b company.
They arguably have the best IP backbone in the country. AT&T
has taken a leadership role in developing the VoIP technology.
They nicely compliment the product line that SBC already offers.
The purchase buys a potential competitor for long distance
service (via VoIP).

My company is in a region controlled by SBC (the ILEC). We are
considering using AT&T for VoIP through a T1 circuit that will be
provisioned by SBC for AT&T. Quality of service issues have
already been addressed by AT&T and I am confident their service
will meet or exceed that of our existing analog. We will retain a
couple analog lines to maintain E911 service and as a failsafe (in
case a backhoe cuts our fiber optic line).

Many consumers elect to strip or dump their landline phones.
Maintaining a DSL circuit may require you maintain the service
but you can strip down to the most basic, local-dialing plan. If
you have a cable modem, dumping the landline altogether can
be a viable option as telcos are required to maintain a ?virtual
dialtone? even after service is cancelled ? this allows you to dial
one number: 911. This is what I have at home - just make
certain your cable modem, router and VoIP adapter have battery
backup. Mine's been running almost continuously for a year.

[kieranmullen]

ok...

Woudnt your lines most liely be in the same place with the fiber? So that reasoning doesnt make any sense. Also most T1's dont come over fiber. They com over copper.

Most telephone companies use backup power to the remote switching facilties (cable companies do not) So If you have your T1 modem and routers hooked up to backup power you should be able to have those working as well in the event of a power outage.

Kieran Mullen