<grin>"It Still Doesn't Work would be ISDW!</grin> Got a chuckle out of
your reply but I get your meaning. Asked the question, "What is ISDN", the
answer you're thinking of is "I Still Don't Know". I'm sure that's the one
you were thinking of. Got'ta love ISDN.
I actually tried it for awhile. In my near-Chicago suburb I ordered it, the
phone company tried for 10 weeks to make it work (unsuccessfully) because
the local office and technicians obviously had no experience with it
whatsoever (secret meaning: I was the first in my area to have ever ordered
ISDN service!). Ultimately I had to debug the service myself (and then tell
the phone company how to fix it). It was pretty depressing to go through
the exercise ... no wonder the phone company couldn't sell ISDN service.
Then there was the incident when an A band destination that I maintained a
constant connection to had an equipment failure and kept disconnecting,
while my equipment kept reconnecting. Unmetered still had a $0.03 (3 cent)
connection charge, and my next months bill was $800!!! Got a MUD report and
it listed roughly 30,000 connections! The other party kicked in to cover
half of my phone bill since it was their equipment failure which caused the
problem.
ISDN ... got'ta love it ... not!
Rich
----- Original Message -----
From: "Travis Johnson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "WISPA General List" <wireless@wispa.org>
Sent: Tuesday, June 20, 2006 4:50 PM
Subject: Re: [WISPA] VoIP Is About More Than Replacing The Phone
Hahaha.... my favorite was It Still Doesn't Work (ISDN).
Travis
Microserv
Rich Comroe wrote:
Nah. It's just a phone. Ordinary wired phones already offer more
features than people want without VoIP. Ordinary phone service typically
offers you a list of 25 features. People don't want em, so in my midwest
Ameritech area (now AT&T land) they typically throw in 5 features from
the feature list for free. Most people don't even want the 5 free
features ... they're just nuisances. There's a "damn it, just take 'em"
attitude where the phone company now bundles several of the features into
all local service whether you want 'em or not.
For the mass of the population it's simply about dial-tone & plain local
/ long distance talk-time. The phone companies learned to accept this.
The same hype that "it's more than replacing the phone" used to be said
about ISDN for 20 years (yes, ISDN *is* that old). Not one advanced ISDN
feature EVER became popular with consumers. Within the telecom industry
ISDN eventually became known by several alternate names, one of which was
"Inventions Subscribers Don't Need" (my favorite).
Rich
----- Original Message ----- From: "Peter R." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "WISPA General List" <wireless@wispa.org>
Sent: Tuesday, June 20, 2006 2:55 PM
Subject: [WISPA] VoIP Is About More Than Replacing The Phone
VoIP Is About More Than Replacing The Phone
http://techdirt.com/articles/20060530/0032231.shtml
For way too long, most of the attention on VoIP has focused on how it's
a cheaper telephone replacement option -- which a few people have
pointed out is the wrong lesson to take from VoIP. Yes, it can provide
cheaper calling, but the real value of VoIP is that it opens up the
ability to add new and useful applications to voice communications. When
looking for game-changing ideas, simply doing something cheaper tends
not to be nearly as revolutionary as enabling something that couldn't
have been done before. That's why it's been disappointing to see so many
VoIP providers focus on price wars rather than offering something
different. The good news is that we're starting to see some companies
offer something different using VoIP. The disposable phone numbers idea
seems more like a gimmick (though one that some folks might find
useful). However, what's more interesting are the features the service
is looking to add on top of the disposable numbers, such as the ability
to offer specific content to callers. Who knows if this particular
solution will catch on, but it's nice to see companies trying to provide
something more than just a telephone replacement service when it comes
to VoIP.
--
Regards,
Peter
RAD-INFO, Inc. - NSP Strategist
We Help ISPs Connect & Communicate
813.963.5884 http://4isps.com/newsletter.htm
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