Just like MVNO has begun to catch fire in the wireless telco world, I think there is a place for Vonage-like service in the wired world. Companies should learn from the IBM of the 80s: if you spend all your time and money trying to hold on to the past, the future is going to get you. The Bells seem to hold all the cards right now, but they are playing a losing game.

Good luck fighting this monster.

With virtually no infrastructure to speak of it would be quite simple, and quite leveling.

Don’t forget that the backbone originated on public campuses of Universities all over the world, we’ve at least got that in our corner.

After all the gold has been stripped from the initial build out, the whole web may end up public domain any way, with the big boys competing with “Joe DV-cine cam” for audience.

If you want change. Vote with your $$. Drop the LL (local loop) — go wireless, VoIP, send PDFs instead of faxes.

I’m personally proud to be down from a leased line and four phone lines to two phone lines. I’m headed to 0 (subscriber lines) within the next six months.

Simply because the call ORIGINATED on a VOIP network (and thus, avoids the ORIGINATING charges) doesnt mean it should avoid TERMINATING minutes… because the call is still terminated on a traditional telco network that costs REAL money to maintain and operate.

This tariff doesnt apply to IP to IP telephone calls… so it makes perfect sense to me.. sounds like they are making it fair for everyone???

I think alot of the time the bells get a bad rap out of spite alone… when you have your DSL line, keep in mind what helps pay for that.. its the fees that the telco charges in other areas, if they made no money to keep the network up, they would not be able to deploy DSL… you’d be stuck with WIFI or Cable only… and more choice is always better, IMHO.

1. Accept no xDSL service that requires you to use Network Address Translation (NAT).

2. Use IP Security in Transport mode to communication with your VoIP provider(s)/peers.

Problem solved: the ISP can’t see what transport protocol (e.g. UDP, TCP) that you’re using because that’s inside the encrypted part of the packet. Seeing what application protocol you’re using is out of the question.

Now, they could still play some games by shaping traffic to particular IP networks (e.g. “Vonage is in this IP network block, so…”), but the next counter to that is to have a Service Level Agreement with the xDSL provider which prohibits that. Preferably one with teeth in it if you catch them at it.

They already rate shape and use QoS today on the network, but not to limit your access to services. It requires a huge amount of resources to tag a packet for QoS - more then you know when you are pushing the entire countries’ traffic.

I also agree that the effort to de-prioritize packets from competing carriers is immense. It’s much more likely that the RBOCs would use a price war to force the small players out of the game.