[Asterisk-Users] OT: Please comment on Dvorak's troll

[Charles Austin]

On 6/7/05, Michael Graves <mgraves at mstvp.com> wrote:
> On Mon, 6 Jun 2005 11:17:20 -0600, Colin Anderson wrote:
> 
> >
> >http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1812887,00.asp
> >
> >Specifically, his assertion that ISP's would sniff traffic and block, say,
> >the SIP port. You could play wack-a-mole with port numbers, no?
> >
> >Also a community based, Freenet style of encryption implementation for
> >"free" VoIP traffic would address this issue.
> >
> >I raise this to the list because I'm sure there's a grain of truth in what
> >he's saying. ILEC's would be crazy to not consider this kind of lock in,
> >since it's pretty obvious that packet voice networks are going to supplant
> >circuit networks completely in, say, 20 years. Maybe sooner.
> 
> Actually, Bob Cringley, another pundit found on the PBS web site raised
> this matter a few weeks ago. I suspect that IAX2 with some encryption
> could port hop around and not be easily tracked as VOIP traffic. But in
> any case there has to be some regulatory stance on what is permitted
> over a network. Certainly there are non-telco carriers like Covad, whom
> I use, that would not concern themselves about the nature of the
> traffic.
> 
> Michael
> 
> --
Actually, the FCC has already come down hard on an independent phone
company that blocked VoIP traffic for a number of years.  Vonage
complained, and finally won:

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/70081/us-slaps-fine-on-company-blocking-voip.html

The telcos have seen this coming for years, and many of them are
getting into the Video over DSL space as a means to compete going
forward.  Off topic....