The future of the telephone
 

Just wondering what you think the future holds for an outdated telephone communication network, that will be soon overtaken by "voip" type communications over the net, i can foresee that the age of the telephone is on a downward spiral .

Re: The future of the telephone
 

Well, seen as that a lot of people don't have a computer yet to use voip, the telephone will be around for a long time.

Plus mobile phones will be around as well, as that's more convenient than lugging around a laptop. :)

Re: The future of the telephone
 

I did say future, not today, i think the phone (stand alone) will be obselete sooner rather than later in the this society, it will be all commuications via the net for free.

Re: The future of the telephone
 

You seem to forget that ADSL users connect to the net using their phone line. I think there's some life left in this outdated network.

Re: The future of the telephone
 

It would be far into the future then :)

I think there still would be a market for a stand alone telephone.

Re: The future of the telephone
 

There is an effectively world-wide infrastructure in place, that's not going to go away in a hurry!

Re: The future of the telephone
 

Before you write off the entire telephone network, bear in mind that our "outdated telephone communication network" supports the internet. Most people in the UK access the internet through either ADSL or dial up. Both use the telephone network. Also, you would probably find that most ISPs rely on a telephone company to provide their international data links (in fact, I think only the larger ones such as NTL use their own).

You may argue that the age of the handset is over. Maybe it is. On the other hand, most people don't want all the hassle involved in using a PC to make a phone call. It may well be cheaper, but do you really want the hassle of starting up the PC, waiting (sometimes) a couple of minutes for it to start up, then start up your VOIP software just to make a call? Picking up a handset is much easier.

Also, you can bet that when VOIP takes off, prices will go through the roof.

Actually, one question I have never seen an answer to. When VOIP takes off and the Telecoms companies are no longer able to rely on their revenue from calls, exactly HOW are upgrades to the network going to be financed? The only way I can think of is either more ISPs introducing caps, ISPs charging people for the bandwidth they use (on top of the monthly fee) or ISPs charging the VOIP companies for the bandwidth (in which case, the VOIP companies may well have to charge for calls).


Put simply, while I do think VOIP will happen, I don't think free calls ever will.

Re: The future of the telephone
 

BT is replacing its infrastructure costing billions of pounds to make it a full IP based network to carry VOIP and data services, BT wants to provide technology where you plug in a device and use it on their network such as internet displays, even a mobile phone eseque handset will be available to plug in to your pc and make calls...

edit:

http://www.btglobalservices.com/en/p...edia/faqs.html

Re: The future of the telephone
 

VOIP will change communications but it will be invisible to many users. Most users will not have it supplied via a computer sat by their desk. Think about the telephony required by large companies with switchboards. Mobiles may take over from fixed landlines in many cases but the outrageous cost of many mobile calls are holding this back.

Re: The future of the telephone
 

Well apart from a 3p connection charge you can already get unlimited UK phone calls for free through http://www.call1899.co.uk or http://www.call18866.co.uk/

Re: The future of the telephone
 

VOIP, I use this every day in work - it's wonderful. :)

Re: The future of the telephone
 

AS BT said on the money programe last week, in the next few years they will cease to be a voice and data provider, and will purly be data, be that a telephone handset, computer connection, fridge connection etc..

So the telephone handset itself will be around for a long time to come its just the technology behind it will change, Its not going to be about if you have a data connection (modem adsl etc) it will be about how you use that data connection, thats the change....

Re: The future of the telephone
 

^ as he said
BT are planning a IP based telephone network, handsets will become VOIP handsets but this will to an extent be transparent to the end user, or as visible as the move from analogue cordless to DECT cordless.
ADSL already provides them with an IP network to the home.
BT are already contracting an IPcentrex to manage their 2000+ call centre staff.

Re: The future of the telephone
 

I use VoIP and its a hell of a lot clearer connection than using standard,You do not need a pc to use VoIP there are handsets in place and available now that use a internet connection no need for a pc (although most users(pc owners) will use as a form of messenger)

Re: The future of the telephone
 

I did say I think it would happen (it is). I don't think the free calls will for long though (even though they are now).

Re: The future of the telephone
 

ofcourse its not going ot be free, why would BT invest heavily in an IP based network if it was not to cash in on the sucess of voice calls over the internet, the network is not only for voice but data use too.

Re: The future of the telephone
 

You need good QoS for VOIP and suitable traffic management, especially as the network gets more congested. I imagine the BT network will be well designed to cope with this.

Re: The future of the telephone
 

we are in the process of converting to voip, where I work, I just had my nice shiny Cisco IP phone installed, although it isn't working with external, incoming calls, yet.

The voice mail option is clever, if a call is missed the system sends you an email with the message embedded as a .wav file, which can be played back via your pc, forwarded elsewhere - or can be heard, as usual, using the phone.

- but, most people, so far, have just been playing with the ring tones - which includes one of a sultry voice saying "are you there" :D

Re: The future of the telephone
 

BT have a new product coming out that acts like a VOIP phone at home and once the handset is outside a 25m range of the base becomes a mobile phone.

Re: The future of the telephone
 

And incoming will be charged mobile rates at all times - nice little earner for BT!

I have VOIP - there's work to be done on call quality to landlines and mobiles as there can be a delay/echo. Fundamentally though this will be the way forward as more of us sign up to VOIP, although at some point the business model will have to change so some sort of fee is levied for voip to voip calls.

Re: The future of the telephone
 

Ooh ooh - see if you can steal me one ;) :D

Re: The future of the telephone
 

Exchange server runs out of HDD space and collapses a week later.
__________________

Don't you need to steal the rest of the equipment too?
__________________

Are they using PoE to power them, or is it powered with a transformer?

Re: The future of the telephone
 

Well. you've got to start somewhere, haven't you :p:

Re: The future of the telephone
 

Don't know about the exact tariffs but the standard calls were very cheap.

Re: The future of the telephone
 

The August issue of PC Pro magazine has a report all about VoIP including reviews of some IP phones such as this onehttp://www.voipuser.co.uk/graphics/grandstream2.jpg

Just plug it into your router, configure for your VoIP provider and away you go.

Check out:
www.babble.net
www.btbroadbandvoice.com
www.call18866.co.uk
www.freeworlddialup.com
www.pipemedia.net/pipecall_pipecall.htm
www.sipgate.co.uk
www.skype.com
www.vonage.co.uk

And it's not just the telephone that's headed the IP way. Digital TV and Video on Demand over IP are already here in some places (eg. http://www.homechoice.co.uk/) and I'm sure it wont be long before Amazon is looking after your album purchases for you and streaming them to your internet media player on demand.

Re: The future of the telephone
 

The cheapest domestic option is probably just to buy some mic enabled headphones and download skype (or whatever) free. Plantronics is giving 120 Skypeout minutes free with headsets at the mo BTW (or 240 if you get sold a set with a slight tear in the headphone cover and take it back :) )

Re: The future of the telephone
 

telephone will be around for decades yet, its usage will drop but it wont stop. Businesses all use land lines, disabled people use them, some internet technologies use them, digital tv subscription services us them. They also happen to be a lot cheaper for phone calls.

Re: The future of the telephone
 

A lot of businesses are now using VOIP or preparing to

EDIT: To substantiate did a quick search for VOIP on nimans.net, one of the leading telecomms distributors to business. 37 products https://secure.nimans.net/search.aspx?textfield=voip

Re: The future of the telephone
 

Beg to differ there M8. For example: Call18866 vs Skype

Setup: free vs free
Monthly Fee: free vs 1.96 euro
In-network call: free vs free
UK landline: flat 2p per call vs 1.4ppm
UK mobile: 12ppm (weekdays), 3ppm (weekends) vs 16ppm

http://www.call18866.co.uk/voiprates.php
http://www.skype.com/products/skypeout/rates/

Also, Skype requires the use of a PC. With call18866 (and most other services) you can use an IP phone. Skype also uses its own proprietary protocol (BT uses MSCP) but all the others use the same SIP protocol.