[extropy-chat] Pearson: Conventional telecoms is obsolete

[J. Andrew Rogers]

Mike Lorrey wrote:
> Having endured some 6 months of terrible service from multiple VoIP
> telephone companies (Vonage and Packet8), I have serious doubts about
> the telecoms dying off any time soon. VoIP sucks big wads, to put it
> simply.


Correlation is not causation.

Put simply, the VoIP companies you mention are VoIP service companies,
not networking companies.  The problem isn't VoIP, it is a poorly built
network (some combination of yours and theirs).  You bought a beater
Yugo and declared that all automobiles are unreliable, uncomfortable,
and underpowered based on your experience.

Which is why VoIP services offered by genuine network operators tend to
work very well as a rule.  VoIP is actually more robust and reliable
than old-fashioned voice circuits if the network is built right.  If you
buy VoIP services from a company that doesn't know squat about building
good networks or use it over a cheapo ISP that doesn't know squat about
building good networks, quality of protocols used over that network is
going to suffer.

I suppose that you also blame that damn TCP protocol when your internet
connection goes out and you can't access the Web.


j. andrew rogers