The United States Congress is on its way of passing a law that is 30 years past due, but in turn would have serious repercussions with some VOIP providers. A few of them are even big enough for a lot of people to be affected. Such names may include Skype, Voxalot, and Call Centric.
If the law passes, it would require these companies to provide phone numbers for all of their customers to allow them to call PSTN lines, or set all CID information as private which would cause a number of other problems such as not able to reach people who won’t answer private calls. Even in the event that voice mail could be left, and there is a telephone harassment charge, it would cause problems since these services technically don’t have a valid telephone number for free to their customers.
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There has been some talk for a few years about net neutrality. Many ISPs are against it as they say it would be unfair, and if they capitalize on special relationships with particular media venues, they would be violating it. However, we all seen where certain uses of the Internet has been throttled or killed completely by the same company that says Net Neutrality would hurt.
Well, I do understand what the ISPs are saying in their “innocent” claims, but let’s face it, they sought to maximize profits while claiming how they are being hurt. It has been shown where the ISPs as a whole has more than enough bandwidth. So, I have a few suggestions.
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I have been using my new Android phone for a little more than a month now, and I really like it. It is fast, I am able to boot the phone quickly. Full touch screen, and 3G. However, there are a few things that the Android phone should have.
I would list what I think should be on the Android, why, and for what benefit. Maybe a developer would come across this, and take my advise into consideration. I would go in order from what I feel is most important to least important.
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In the United States, the emergency response number is 911. Any where in the US, or even Canada – you can dial 911 from any phone, and help is on the way. Well, not exactly. There are many VOIP providers that don’t offer this. For example, Skype doesn’t offer this. Neither do many providers that just charge you on a per minute plan. One example is I use Local Phone to make VOIP calls (when I need too), and they are less than 1¢ a minute. However, no 911 dialing is available.
Call Centric charges me $3/month for a 911 fee, and offers it, but that would mean in an emergency, I would have to remember to do something different as calls through them are 2¢ a minute. And I am sure that some people want to make sure their VOIP provider hasn’t screwed anything up, and would want to call 911 to see if it works. However, doing so just to say hi is illegal.
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Original Article: http://b.fsp.im/936a
On Thursday, the 3rd of November, Ars Technica published an article regarding the possibility of the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) to move to 100% VOIP from the old POTS standard. If you would read the comments on this article, are with some people afraid that the PSTN is going to break, there would poor quality, and jittering galore.
First, you are already probably using Voice Over IP Protocol (VOIP). The Plain Ordinary Telephone System (POTS) relied on a copper wire running from your home going to a Central Office, and then electronically (at least since every one had their own phone number) to connect to another set of wires. This essentially meant that if you lived in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania (like me), and you wanted to call San Francisco California, you literally had an electronic tie of a phone cable from your home to where ever you called. Essentially, you owned that line of wire until you finished the call. No one else could use it, and long distance calls were very expensive. Anyone in their 40s would know that you didn’t make very long distance calls for no reason.
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