VoIP Ushers in the Death of an Industry?

[Giancarlo]

Originally posted by Agathon
And the recording industry is doomed too.

It's a great time to be alive.

Not going to happen. I read reports that dispute the fact that P2P is not damaging the recording industry the way they would expect.

A great time to be alive? Man, what fool are you.. you are cheering over the fact you want people to lose their jobs?

[St Leo]

The idea of a One World Corporation scares the **** out of me, and that's exactly what one gets when one extrapolates current trends. It's in the interests of shareholders for all the publicly traded corporations to merge. Gah.

[Ben Kenobi]

I have a buddy who has it. It works with his regular phone, his computer acts as his answering machine, and automatically call forwards all his calls to all his phones (cell, work, etc.).

Does VoIP allow for captioning, so that the words would appear on the screen during the conversation?

[Ted Striker]

Originally posted by Oncle Boris


You're calling too much girls in Eastern Europe.

Actually the number I gave is just for basic service, without extra long distance charges, so it probably adds up to even more.

[Az]

It should be so, but I don't think it will.

No user charge for mobile services.

[Wezil]

Originally posted by JimmyCracksCorn


Well thats essentially what we have already with Bell and Rogers.

We still have some choice. I am a customer of neither.

[Sprayber]

Slightly off topic but I don't even use a land line anymore. I have two cell phones. My regular cell phone and a cricket pre paid phone that gives me unlimited local calls and over a 1000 long distance minutes for a very cheap rate. The minutes are only used if I make the call. Both cells together are cheaper than if I had a reglular land line although I may look a little silly carrying around two phones. My prepaid stays in the car or home and my regular cell phone goes with me.

[reds4ever]

Originally posted by Sprayber
Slightly off topic but I don't even use a land line anymore. I have two cell phones. My regular cell phone and a cricket pre paid phone that gives me unlimited local calls and over a 1000 long distance minutes for a very cheap rate. The minutes are only used if I make the call. Both cells together are cheaper than if I had a reglular land line although I may look a little silly carrying around two phones. My prepaid stays in the car or home and my regular cell phone goes with me.

Why don't you get a phone that takes dual SIMs?

[DanS]

This might be the death of an industry, but I think this will be a lot slower death than AT&T and the long distance business simply because the last couple feet of wire helps the Bell companies keep a hold on the business for longer.

[DanS]

I just checked my telephone bill and it's pretty damn cheap anyway. It costs $12.78 a month. Hardly worth switching over to VOIP, unless you make a lot of outbound long distance calls and need services such as voice-mail, call waiting, etc.

The fees and taxes are what kill you though.

Federal Subscriber Line Charge: $3.87 (a BS fee, as I understand)
Federal Excise Tax: $0.59
Federal Universal Service Fund: $0.42
State Gross Receipts Tax: $1.88
State E-911 Tax: $0.76

Total fees and taxes: $7.52

My cable TV bill is outrageous. I'm going to get rid of it. $70 a month for everything. I get the high definition programming tier, but no digital cable channels or premium channels.

Comparatively speaking, high speed cable internet is cheap. $43 including taxes and cable modem rental. 8 Mbps down/1 Mbps up.

[Giancarlo]

Originally posted by DanS
My cable bill is outrageous. I'm going to get rid of it. $70 a month for everything. I get the high definition programming tier, but no digital cable channels or premium channels.

That's insane... I got digital cable channels.. and it costs me something like $44 after taxes and equipment charges... (originally $39.95).

[DanS]

$22 of the $70 is for the high definition equipment and channels. But it's still insane. I agree. That's why I'll get rid of it.

[Seeker]

VoIP

[Dr Strangelove]

My cable connection goes down for some period of time almost every week. At the end of last year it was down for a solid two weeks, and then in January it was down more often than up for the first two weeks. I can't remember tha last time my phone failed. Needless to say I'm in no hurry to get rid of my telephone. OTOH the next time we're asked to vote on the renewal of the monopoly for cable service in this area I'll vote against the current company. Their service is terrible. It's almost Eastern European.

[fdgfx]

Cable industry has gone through tremendous consolidations during the 90s. Today, only 2 major players survive and become regional monopolies: Comcast and Time Warner. That should explain why your cable bills have gone way up.

For me, all the corporate dinosaurs from the switched circuit era can go to hell. All regional Bells offer crappy services for their customers and generate negative returns for their shareholders. Now Verizon has intimidated local municipalities in Pennsylvania from implementing free Wi-Fi access....