AT&T Unveils New VoIP Service > What is the point?

reply to Camelot One

Re: What is the point?

Honestly... this is the AT&T way. If they jack up the price of their features, it makes packages look more appealing. Caller ID is $9.99 a month because it's the most popular feature next to voice mail.

SBC was never this bad.. they must have brought someone on board from the old, tired, dead AT&T corporation that brought this vast knowledge with them.

But, when you jack up the price of ala carts, and then you put them in a bundle, it makes that "You save X when you buy this bundle"... um, no kidding?

I would expect Cable to sell a voip product over a switched one because of the nature of their service. But, for a PHONE company to want to go VOIP over their copper switched service is beyond me. Still, I have to say, to them, phone is phone. Since they control the line, as comcast and cable claims, I see no difference. For some at&t consumers, they will get a better sounding call and less static as well. Still, the price? eh.. can live with out it.

unless they plan to get rid of the copper

reply to fiberguy

said by fiberguy
I would expect Cable to sell a voip product over a switched one because of the nature of their service. But, for a PHONE company to want to go VOIP over their copper switched service is beyond me. Still, I have to say, to them, phone is phone. Since they control the line, as comcast and cable claims, I see no difference. For some at&t consumers, they will get a better sounding call and less static as well. Still, the price? eh.. can live with out it.
[/BQUOTE :

Because telco switches are being upgraded to session switches and the like. You can take a 200x200ft dms switch with over 200 DTC's and 100 DTCI's, not including a few SPM's tossed in, replace it with 3 bays the size of a double wide frig and accomplish the same task plus everything is broken down into IP, which ends up being cheaper for hardware and upkeep. Plus, you can have soft switches all over, at other POP sites and switches where everything goes by fiber requiring less eqp over all. IP doesn't care what medium it travels on, as long as it gets there. The days of the DMS 100, 250 and 300 are history. Make room for the Nortel session switches and equivalent.

reply to fiberguy
Sounds like the grocer that has a 40% off this weeks price sale.

Those 3 dollars pizzas are only 2.50 but at this weeks prices your save MORE.

It gets em/us every time.

CableVoip has a business model based, in part, on regulatory constructs. Most Cable was circuit switched two years ago.

ATT is responding to the game. Kill the circuit switch to take advantage of the new construct.

ATT wins, price the same or slightly less as the competitor for IP based voice services in an unregulated environment (it isn't considered telephone service).

The PHONE company hasn't been pure copper based voice switched any more than the Cable company has been pure coax based video switched....they have both, as you know, they've pushed fiber deeper into the network.

Frankly, once either of them have the ability to provide internet access at any reasonable speed, both can avoid the dedicated circuit switch for origination (maybe termination) purposes. Fiber or not..wireless via any tech provides the same ability, no? It's all a matter for the accountants, engineers and MBAs to fight out.

Then again...I'd argue it's all political...it is all price regulated or not. Both the telcos and cable companies have their crosses to bear at the expense (or benefit) of their monopolies. The only thing I'll give to the latter is that they were at least able to build a business on the idea that over the air tv couldn't occur with a "community access antenna". Both business models suck, but both are winning in America. We sell out cheap