What vexes VoIP users?

Mon Feb 28 22:55:23 UTC 2011

> On 2/28/2011 5:19 PM, Joe Greco wrote:
> >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comcast#Home_telephone
> >>> People are not, en-masse, going away from POTS and towards plugging a VoIP device into the back of their router.
> > Twenty bucks says the first poster is correct; I'm willing to bet that
> > most of the Comcast "VoIP" customers are handed off as RJ11 into legacy
> > POTS lines in the target residence.
>
> Of course they are, since users oddly enough like using their existing 
> phones, extensions, and wiring.

So then let's argue that ILEC-delivered POTS is digital too, because it went
on fiber to the local SLC hut...  

> > In fact, I've had trouble finding any way to get our cable company to
> > hand off their telephony service digitally, making the claims of "digital
> > phone service" a little laughable as they still hand it off analog.
>
> This is a bit disingenuous, are CD's not digital because the speakers 
> you play the music from analog devices? 

So's your handset. 

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 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?

With end-to-end digital, you can have reliable call supervision and
status, OOB Caller-ID delivery, crystal clear call quality, probably
the ability to handle multiple calls intelligently, no hook race
conditions, etc.

When you throw that one stupid and pointless analog hop in there, you
are suddenly limited and broken in so many ways.

... 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.