Currently viewing the tag: "VOIP"
ANYONE who has made a free call to relatives abroad using Skype knows how cool Internet telephony can be. For some time now, with the right software on both ends of the conversation, you could make and receive clear PC-to-PC voice calls over the Internet and bypass the expensive long-distance rates that phone companies typically charge.
THE last time I made an Internet “phone call” from a PC was years ago on a slow connection. I was surprised that it worked at all.
Through lags, echoes and static, my brother’s voice streamed all the way from Toronto over the Internet into my PC speakers in Quezon City. I talked to him using a crappy karaoke microphone attached to my PC’s sound card. I don’t recall what we talked about, except that we must have said, “Can you hear me?” and “Are you still there?” a number of times.
Government documents rarely move me, but when I read the latest National Telecommunications Commission memo on Internet telephony, I felt like getting up and cheering. This would have looked funny in the newsroom, so I’ll do my cheering here instead.
APRIL 4, 2005 (MST)—Internet service providers will be able to offer low-cost overseas voice calls in competition with phone companies once the government issues the final rules on voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).
A draft of the guidelines released by the National Telecommunications Commission last week finally settles the debate about whether ISPs may do so legally by declaring Internet telephony a value-added service.
