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(Mis)Uses of Technology

by Mike Masnick

Thu, Jan 13th 2005 10:05am





Covad Launches: I Can't Believe It's Not POTS VoIP

from the or-something-like-that dept

Covad is making some news today for launching a VoIP solution that no one needs to know is VoIP. That is, there's no extra equipment. You hook up your phone to your phone jacks, just as you normally do, and Covad does the VoIP conversion back at their own equipment. This also means that the whole "it doesn't work when the power goes out" argument isn't an issue either. Basically, it's VoIP that appears to be identical to plain old telephone service (POTS). This is cool in the sense that it takes away most of the reasons why users don't want to do VoIP. It takes away the hesitation that non-techie people have about signing up for VoIP, and it gets Covad around having to sign deals with incumbent operators to use their network. Of course, it's not all good. Users lose the ability to take their VoIP with them. One nice thing about having equipment at the end point is that it works at any endpoint -- meaning you can take your phone number to any place that has an internet connection. It also means that Covad has total control over the equipment -- meaning the end user wouldn't be able to modify it or add features and applications, but so far, no phone-based VoIP provider seems willing to open up their end-user equipment anyway.

5 Comments | Leave a Comment..


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Reader Comments (rss)

(Flattened / Threaded)

  1.  

    sounds like it could work with standard phones

    identicon
    nonuser, Jan 13th, 2005 @ 10:41am

    if the user is willing to dial extra digits, i.e. Covad + the number they're trying to call. I'm assuming the phones they supply are basically standard except for tweaking the signalling a bit.

    No?

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  2.  

    Re: sounds like it could work with standard phones

    identicon
    nonuser, Jan 13th, 2005 @ 10:51am

    oops, I just remembered about the billing/authentication piece. Well, even that could be handled on a standard phone using some trickery...

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  3.  

    No Subject Given

    identicon
    bruciew, Jan 13th, 2005 @ 11:14am

    not sure this explanation of the Covad news is right on the mark. the phone signal goes analog from the jack back to the central office over a leased copper loop from the RBOC, so this doesn't cut the Bells out of the equation like VoIP over a broadband connection can.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  4.  

    It isnt clear that covad can power the equipment f

    identicon
    obtuse squirrel, Jan 13th, 2005 @ 10:27pm

    I could see that covad could integrate the dsl modem and voip stuff into a package to plug a pots line plug with dsl on it (what a concept, since they have to lease the copper line to get into your house that has a dial tone on it) and provide a phone. Are you all sure that they can line power it? Line power isn't that much, and the amount of energy it takes to run a 2500 set or 500 set is not much compared to what it could take to run a modem and voip pile.

    didnt see that specifically addressed in the post.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  5.  

    No Subject Given

    identicon
    Greg Andrew, Jan 13th, 2005 @ 11:59pm

    More or less what some of the cable companies are doing; they just plug your current phone system into the cable system.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]


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