Saturday, October 26, 2002

Finally, VoIP for the home! When used to work at AT&T Labs some years ago, some of us were talking about what could happen to telephony if anybody were able to use software in a home PC to terminate VoIP calls carried over DSL or cable. All the misfunctionality (call waiting, conference calls, voice mail, ...) one pays dearly for with current local phone service could be replaced by more functional PC software. We even looked at open source VoIP software that could avoid the need for a specialized box --- the PC would be enough. For AT&T this could have been a way of getting back at the local monopoly incumbents. But large telephony companies have long ago lost the ability to innovate. I hope Vonage does well. 10:51:23 PM