Playing Catchup/Falling behind

Krouc

Just some stuff I came across over here.

Blow ISP?
http://www.techtv.com/news/culture/story/0,24195,3419105,00.html

I thought this story was good; they were pissed off dialing to an exchange in a city many many miles away (AOL). Hope for people in the sticks!.

Also in relation to the bandwidth costs money have a look at the video on this page. A nice way to look at it. Ireland cant be connected via wires and ppl here are now moving to wired + wireless hybrids.
http://www.techtv.com/screensavers/showtell/story/0,24330,3419005,00.html

It's only 7mins but worth a look.

Something else thats now showing is what the internet can do apart from email and surfing. Cisco is advertising Internet Phones ("Saving you $$$") I am sure many ISP's in a small country wont want customers using that technology. I can hear the spin now, Voice over IP is buzz technology just like the users looking for brodband a few years ago.

If I remember Chorus for one bans voice over IP.

The gap gets bigger....


Also just something else I noticed, when I was over here over a year ago cell phones were only coming to the masses in a huge way. It was very expensive and (SMS was over 10cents a message) and both people had to pay for a call (if you call me it costs me money as well) Well now its a little over a year and boy have they caught up! Flat rate SMS/Voice... passing out the quality in certain areas to a degree compared with Ireland for example.

That’s one thing I have noticed here is that its a consumers paradise in many ways. Companies seem to me to have a totally different way of thinking. And it’s to the advantage of the consumer.

One Tv advert amuses me a lot, a family has purchased a new PC and the kid says to the father "dad its so slow the download bar is frozen"
To this many people in the room start the
"you cheaped out on the processor, ram........"
then one guy asks
"where's your Roadrunner high speed connection?"
"ahh we do dialup"
The whole room erupts with laughter, best way to describe it it like in Auston Power's Goldmember when he's getting laughed it. Dialup is a joke and no rat in sight.


One bad thing here was the FCC to limit access to the exchanges here so it will now be harder for companies like Earthlink to get into SWBell's exchanges but when SBC's DSL is selling it for a fair price (about $40 a month uncapped) Its not a great concern.

Its one thing for a company to have a monopoly but its something totally different when you have a greedy company that also has a monopoly.

With the money saved alone on internet costs for a few months having been in the US I can buy a 20gb Ipod!


Krouc

MadsL

This got me thinking...as far as putting pressure on Telcos to enable exchanges...

Me 'Can I have broadband?'

Telco: No, not available in your area.

I'd rather like to hear the response from the telcos to..

Me 'Can I have broadband?'

Telco: No, not available in your area.

Me: But I'm person number #573 that has applied in this area, connected to YourPlaceName exchange. I know that because I have registered my interest not just with you, but also on the Boards.ie Board. When we get to about 600 people registered on YourPlaceName exchange, we are all coming down to the exchange along with RTE, TV3 and as many feckin huge banners as we can that say you are full of bull and we are not going to take it any more. Until that day, each of us WILL call every day until you have something different to say.


Moderators, how about a board that has threads for each exchange in the country. This might be a base from which to organise local pressure. We may be able to push (like in the UK)for expression of interest levels to apply. Or organise local actions. Pressure local TDs. Local Poster campaigns.

??

MadsL

___________________________________
This is a local shop for local people...

STaN

Originally posted by Krouc
If I remember Chorus for one bans voice over IP.

Any idea why? Voice over IP is not a major burden on a broadband network.

MadsL

Voice over IP works quite well for me even on dialup. I use PC-telephone to call a friend in the UK, he's got broadband so costs him nothing. The only problem is that neither of us have a static IP address so it involves an initial call to establish at least one IP address. Viola - International calls for the price of a local call.

The only problem I have is finding a free client - most of the 'old' VoIP clients - Net2Phone etc seem to now want to be per minute carriers.

As far as telcos 'banning' VoIP - well it's isn't difficult to see why they would, as they clearly would lose revenue. I don't know if they would be allowed to block specific ports - PC Telephone uses port 9084 for its 'dialing'.

MadsL

SkepticOne

Originally posted by MadsL
The only problem I have is finding a free client - most of the 'old' VoIP clients - Net2Phone etc seem to now want to be per minute carriers.

I'm not familiar with VoIP, but could you not use one of those dynamic DNS services?

Delphi91

Originally posted by MadsL
...The only problem I have is finding a free client - most of the 'old' VoIP clients - Net2Phone etc seem to now want to be per minute carriers...MadsL

Why not use Netmeeting? It has a voice facility and it's free.....

Mike

MadsL

Both excellent suggestions...

Dynamic DNS..great idea but involves GOA protocol (get off arse) though. And it usually needs a call to say are u free for a natter anyway.

NetMeeting - I used it once and it was such an enormous pain in the ass I vowed never again. The nice thing about PC-telephone is that you just 'dial' the IP address and as long as the other party is running the client ... ring ring = hello .. without having to wade through pneumatic german couples

What about the local exchange threads....worth a go...or not..??

MadsL

Hannibal_12

The US is most certainly a real consumer based society. I have relatives over there and the difference I see in service levels and what they expect for their money is in sharp contrast to here.
Despite the nasty anti American rhetoric that seems so common place now if you want to live relatively cheaply and have access to the latest and greatest tech it can't be beat.(Just stay out of Harlem).

EDIT:

As for the voice over IP thing as has been said it would represent a large loss in revenue for many TELCOs if it had widespread use. I can just imagine the lengths our old friends at €ircon would go to in order that no VOIP is used. You may very well see a giant RAT gnawing at your telephone lines somenight.

Delphi91

Originally posted by MadsL
...The nice thing about PC-telephone is that you just 'dial' the IP address and as long as the other party is running the client ... ring ring = hello .. without having to wade through pneumatic german couples ...MadsL

You can do exactly the same thing with Netmeeting. You don't have to scan the lists to find your friend. Use something like ICQ or YAHOO to get them to tell you their IP address or vice versa, then type the IP address into the box at the top of the Netmeeting window and off you go!

Mike

MadsL

Fair enough - hadn't thought to do that..but on the Netmeeting vs PC-Telephone debate iis horses for courses...whatever...The technology is more interesting than the client app.

One of the great appeals of broadband for me is to get VoIP - totally removes the cost for me of calling mates in the UK who generally have PCs and broadband . I just wish there was a way to call fixed line for free and then I'd call me ma more often

It seems hard to imagine that Telcos could fairly ban VoIP... I mean OK technically they could block ports and so on but wouldn't that violate our ToS...is it technically possible to identify which packets are voice 'data'??

On Cisco Internet Phones some interesting stuff herehttp://www.communitech.com/cisco/cisco_compatible_products.asp
I like the handsets with real buttons esp as i have a laptop $89 eh?...and 16 lines for 420 bucks...I'm off to set up a call shop down Thomas St...:D

Krouc

It seems to have turned out about a thread about net meeting!
From what I remember when I called chorus, they were banning anything like running ftp severs and they were also saying they
Didn’t support Linux (I know I know!! Idiots) there was a post at the time about it. They didn’t seem to want anyone running
any servers while on their service. The ban on voice over Ip was stupid but at the time I think it was due to $£$£, they were
offering a phone package and no doubt they wanted to make some profits off of it. Anyhoo enough on that.

When I think now, posting links to streaming media was a bit unfair on the people on 56k but did you watch them?

While Internet access is everywhere people are now building wireless networks in the (neighbourhoods) estates and small towns
And sharing lots of information as well as Internet access. I know this is being done in Ireland with ppl like irishwan and
More ppl should join that kind of a movement I believe. In many place there is a place where you can get free net access, this is not everywhere but for example they are talking about hot spots where you will be able to get the access, supplied by the city and for free. For example I can goto DairyQueen and have free wireless access while I am there. many other stores seem to be following. How great it could be to be able to go to O'Briens sammich bar and have that? People in the bay area (San fran) you can get free access if you have line of sight! Its provided by money man alright, so maybe Alfie might be willing to do the same with all the money he has.

Quote:
"Bandwidth doesn’t cost something, it costs money to stick wires in the ground but the cost of sticking a packet on a router
is a small amount of electricity.
Goto maywest to where the different internet backbones meet and where psinet and uunet exchange packets, who's providing
service to whom? They call it peering and dont charge anything. bandwidth dosent cost money. ISP's cost money. ISP may not be
the model of the future."


This is a great point I think. ISP's gouge customers somewhat. What's great about is that this kind of thinking is welcomed and the growth reflects it.
When I look at here and compare to Ireland on the flat rate issue alone we are many years behind (5) While the next
Generation (what I myself would refer to as 3rd) of Internet access is arriving here Ireland is still stuck in the first.

ISP in Ireland seem to suffer from the '640k should be enough for anyone' except its 56k ought to be enough.

I emailed RTE as all they offer is a 56k stream which is pure crap (after watching streams on BB, people (me) expect certain quality :P) I asked them why the dont have a high quality stream and the answer was bandwidth costs, I wonder who's hosting their setup?!? If the state broadcaster has those issues! What chance does anyone else have? While the reply was very professional the person was intrested in what BB was like and how it affected user usage. Companies and such may be slowly 'copping' on to the situation. I dont bother with RTE's streams any more, it might as well just be sound with that quality.

Why would i go to a site that only offers 56k streams when I can go else where? Services suffer and then in turn profits. Your business is only as big as your bandwidth.

This whole issuse is so bigger than just home users its scary.

Krouc