Due to the travelling nature of my life recently, I've heard that people have trouble tracking down which phone number to use to get ahold of me. Eventually, it may not matter that much. With the advent of Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology, eventually long-distance billing will be a thing of the past, as people will be (and already are) having conversations over the Internet instead of by traditional phone. Applications such as MSN Messenger, Skype, and Google Talk, which have audio conversation capabilities, have been instrumental in unleashing the onslaught of low-cost alternatives to big corporations with expensive phone plans. Perhaps it won't all be completely free forever, but don't you think that such a trend will be impossible for the big phone companies to ignore once the masses switch to VoIP? It will happen... Bell Canada beware. Email me your Skype I.D. if you have it, and lets talk for free. But if I'm offline, I guess you'll just have to call.
On a related note, I once worked for Broadcom, and was involved specifically in low-level tone detection within VoIP data streams, involving mathematical convolutions of discrete PCM data in ANSI C within the firmware of some of the company's embedded ASICs, for all of you nerds out there.
Daniel
1 comment:
Of course, by 'free' you mean 'for the cost of bandwidth'.
Post a Comment