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< | My second draft is ready for review. Thank you. | | | Talk is Cheap…And Getting Cheaper
-- By DonnaAckermann - 05 Nov 2009 | | | It is technically possible just by using public bandwidth to route cell phone calls over the internet, instead of relying on spectrum that is licensed to the cell phone companies. Mesh routing, using cooperative routing to allow a large number of people to have services connected through a small number of ports, uses unregulated portions of the public electromagnetic spectrum. Once a wireless mesh network is created as individuals and businesses join it and expand it, VoIP technology will make cell phone companies unnecessary. | |
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< | An example of a VoIP program is Asterisk, which can do everything that a telephone can do, but it does it all for free over the internet. Asterisk’s open source software allows users to talk through computers and telephone landlines. OpenBTS is a free software and hardware package that allows Asterisk to work with cell phone handsets by turning any computer into a cell phone base station. Thus, Asterisk and OpenBTS make cell phone companies superfluous, as those companies only provide access to licensed spectrum, which is now unnecessary because bandwidth is available for free through the internet. | >
> | An example of a VoIP program is Asterisk, which can do everything that a telephone can do, but it does it all for free over the internet.
- No, Asterisk does everything a private branch exchange (PBX) can do. Asterisk is a free software VoIP? switch.
Asterisk’s open source software allows users to talk through computers and telephone landlines. OpenBTS is a free software and hardware package that allows Asterisk to work with cell phone handsets by turning any computer into a cell phone base station. Thus, Asterisk and OpenBTS make cell phone companies superfluous, as those companies only provide access to licensed spectrum, which is now unnecessary because bandwidth is available for free through the internet.
- There are some patent issues you haven't mentioned. That's important.
| | | Cell Phone Industry Fights VoIP...
Another example of VoIP technology, which is less sophisticated than Asterisk and is proprietary, is Skype, which allows calls to be placed from one computer to another, for free. The cell phone companies’ initial refusal to allow Skype and other VoIP technology on their networks sparked a controversy, both in the United States and abroad. Europe recently asserted its opposition to the cell phone industry’s restriction on the use of VoIP technology on mobile phones and threatened to apply new roaming regulation or antitrust rules to support its position.
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- You might have wanted to mention something about the corporate history of Skype, about the size of its user base, about the services it offers for interaction with POTS and so on. If the reader is naive enough to need the explanation you are giving, he needs more. Why are you using footnotes in a wiki? Surely you see that's absurd. Make links in the text.
| | | By comparison, the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is sending mixed signals with respect to the use of VoIP technology on cell phones. In March 2008, the FCC held an auction to sell the recently-freed 700 MHz spectrum; AT&T and Verizon were considered the big winners because they each bought a lot of spectrum. The 700 MHz spectrum is considered particularly valuable because of its ability to penetrate buildings and cover all fifty states, including rural areas. One of the conditions of this auction was that the frequency be open access, perhaps indicating the FCC’s desire to allow VoIP technology on cell phones. While the ACLU and others earlier pushed for open access to mean open devices, open applications, open services, and open networks, the FCC only required open devices and open applications. So while the FCC can publicly claim to be supporting open access, which would allow VoIP technology to flourish on cell phones, in reality its support for open access is lukewarm at best.
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- You haven't explained what those catchwords mean, so unless the reader doesn't need you to tell her anything, you haven't told her what she needs to know.
| | | In April 2008, the FCC further demonstrated its reluctance to allow VoIP technology on cell phones when it turned down Skype’s open access petition, which would have given Skype federal protection to run through cell phone carriers. The FCC claimed to turn down Skype’s petition because the Commission has enough rules requiring open access, including the requirement that the 700 MHz frequency be kept open access. But if the FCC were really in favor of open access, why restrict Skype? The United States may be less willing to fight for VoIP technology on cell phones and open access in general because the government profits from keeping cell phone companies in business; cell phone companies pay the government when spectrum is originally licensed and then pay a second time when taxes are levied on those consumers using telecommunications services.
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- The US government has less taxation interest in the telecomms sector than the European member states do. Perhaps you should look elsewhere for a reason US regulation is weaker.
| | | ...And the Industry Loses
In the end, VoIP and free communications endanger the cell phone companies’ survival, but the cell phone companies cannot stop the development or spread of technology, and so the cell phone oligopolists will die. Recently, after significant resistance, AT&T enabled VoIP technology on the iPhone over its 3G wireless network, as it had already allowed VoIP technology on its other wireless devices. This move, which AT&T had to do to appease its customers, is a hopeful sign of the beginning of the end for the cell phone industry. With the technology in place, only time will tell how long it is until the regulatory and political framework changes so that a cell phone call is just another free commodity.
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You are entitled to restrict access to your paper if you want to. But we all derive immense benefit from reading one another's work, and I hope you won't feel the need unless the subject matter is personal and its disclosure would be harmful or undesirable.
To restrict access to your paper simply delete the "#" on the next line:
# * Set ALLOWTOPICVIEW = TWikiAdminGroup, DonnaAckermann
Note: TWiki has strict formatting rules. Make sure you preserve the three spaces, asterisk, and extra space at the beginning of that line. If you wish to give access to any other users simply add them to the comma separated list
I tried to delete the attachment below, but I was told no "TrashAttachment" page exists and was denied access to create such a page.
| META FILEATTACHMENT | attachment="Forbes_Article.pdf" attr="" comment="Forbes Magazine Article: %22The $10 Phone Bill%22" date="1257442662" name="Forbes_Article.pdf" path="Forbes Article.pdf" size="3231866" stream="Forbes Article.pdf" user="Main.DonnaAckermann" version="1" |
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- Maybe you want to make clear the time scale for your predictions, and give a little more insight into the mechanism. At present the closed-network operators have significantly reduced the amount of WiFi available pretty much everywhere in the developed world, and are working very hard to replace the public internet with their closed networks at the consumer wireless level. So how do you know what's going to happen in the end?
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