[Asterisk-biz] Vonage bows to 911 pressure

[Ted Wallingford]

On Thursday, May 05, 2005, at 01:56PM, Greg Boehnlein <damin at nacs.net> wrote:

>Anyone that got into the VoIP business and didn't do their homework (aka 
>the entire Lemonade Stand, Reseller of a Reseller, Voice over Public 
>Internet) is in trouble...
>You cannot compete w/ the ILEC. You don't own the last mile of Copper. You 
>will always be at their mercy and will always be at a disadvantage. The 
>FCC isn't helping matters.

Greg--good to see you fired up as usual!

Regarding the last mile.  I agree with the basic principle that slavery to the ILEC will hurt the independent IP telephony business--just not with the idea that it makes it impossible for independents to compete. It's all about adding value to the proposition. Independents always have a better chance of adding real value than Bell does, regardless of who owns the infrastructure. Besides, if we're talking about E911, then it's Bell's dominion over the PSAP, not the last mile, that enslaves TSPs to the ILEC. 

I'm also interested in seeing what this means for Skype. Skype would fall into the same category, would it not?

--
Ted Wallingford
http://www.macvoip.com
Office Phone: 216-588-0419
Skype: tedwallingford