Re: What vexes VoIP users?

[Joe Greco <jgreco () ns sol net>]

> > So let's look for a rational comparison instead.
> >
> > Take your CD player's analog audio output and run it fifty feet,
> > making sure to route it along some nice fluorescent lights.  Even
> > with a good shielded cable, analog signal is notorious for picking
> > up noise.
> >
> > Now take your CD player's TOSLINK output and run it that same
> > fifty feet.  I'm aware of the spec limits, but most modern gear
> > with good cables will do this without a problem - we're discussing
> > the difference between analog and digital here in any case.
> >
> > Anyways, listen to both and then let's talk about the difference
> > that carrying a signal in an analog format needlessly can make.
>
> You're working under the incorrect assumption that a user can't simply 
> plug into the back of their EMTA and I assure that isn't the case.  

No, I'm not, we were talking about a CD player, and I assure you it *is*
the case that I *can* do that.

> An 
> operator can choose to not use the in home wiring, and in some installs 
> this is the right method,  but in the case of decent wiring and existing 
> analog sets the user is happy with there's no reason to do so.

There may be no compelling reason to do so, at least.  However, digital
gear offers benefits, and some people want them.  Others, like me, live
in bad RF environments where POTS picks up too much noise unless you 
very carefully select your gear and shield your cables.  Further, the
digital phones support other features, such as the ability to manage 
multiple calls seamlessly, present Caller-ID reliably (even while you
are on another call), etc.

> > > You can plug any ATA into the
> > > existing home wiring, including the ones that Vonage deploys:
> > >
> > > http://support.vonage.com/doc/en_us/649.xml
> > So here's the *point*:  if you have digital phones, maybe VoIP but could
> > also certainly be any of the proprietary digital systems, why should you
> > have to run through the ambiguity of a digital-to-analog-to-digital
> > conversion?
> I hate to tell you, but residential users don't to buy a new phone.  

I hate to tell *you*, but the LEC's and cable companies like to hand 
off POTS to small businesses too.

> They don't see any problem with their existing analog set and usually 
> they're right.

Your argument:  "This works fine for most people therefore it will
work for everyone."  Is that really what you're saying?

> What's broken for a residential user?  

That depends.  I've got many years of experience with POTS.  How about
a POTS phone that won't automatically hang up when the call is complete?
Really annoying when it's a speakerphone and you have to get up and walk
across the room to press one stupid button.  (Our Cisco 79xx gear is
*stellar* both in speakerphone quality and in handling such things).  How
about listening to the local radio station's broadcast on your POTS line
while making calls, because the cheap Taiwanese phone isn't sufficiently
shielded?  I don't really want or need to go on; POTS *stinks* compared
to digital.  I have no objection to you wanting your lines handed off as
POTS, but I'd like mine delivered digitally.

> For that matter I'd rather get 
> rid of every digital phone in our business, they're a waste of money, 
> and run pure soft phones but until people start caring about voice (they 
> don't, check cell MOS scores) and adopt wideband voice in numbers there 
> is 0 reason for a home user to change.

That's a matter of the consumer and their needs and wants.

... JG
-- 
Joe Greco - sol.net Network Services - Milwaukee, WI - http://www.sol.net
"We call it the 'one bite at the apple' rule. Give me one chance [and] then I
won't contact you again." - Direct Marketing Ass'n position on e-mail spam(CNN)
With 24 million small businesses in the US alone, that's way too many apples.