The Tipping Point for VOIP?
The Times On Line reports that Google will offer voice over internet protocol or VOIP in England. If so it represents a major milestone in VOIP's history. This may be when we can say that VOIP has gone mainstream.
The Times on Line (external link) reports
Google gears up for a free-phone challenge to BT
By Elizabeth Judge, Telecoms Correspondent
"GOOGLE revolutionised the internet. Now it is hoping to do the same with our phones."
"The company behind the US-based internet search engine looks set to launch a free telephone service that links users via a broadband internet connection using a headset and home computer."
"The technology that will enable Google to move in on the market has been around for some time. Software by the London-based company, Skype, has been downloaded nearly 54 million times around the world but no large telecommunication firms have properly exploited it."
"BT, which connects seven out of ten British households, has developed its own internet-telephone service. However, the telephone giant, which has the most to lose if the new technology takes off, has been reluctant to promote it heavily . . ."
There's a nice article here (external link to SF Gate)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/02/09/BUGMD4R8I81.DTL
on current experiences with voice over internet protocol or VOIP. Audio quality varies tremendously, between that of a shortwave radio transmission to a fairly good cell phone call. It's all about moving bits; as such I've written around VOIP's edges quite a bit, all of these are internal links: bits, packets and switching, TC/IP, and digital principles.