Comments on: End of an (Vonage) Affair http://gigaom.com/2005/03/23/end-of-an-vonage-affair/ Mon, 20 May 2013 12:24:43 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Om Malik http://gigaom.com/2005/03/23/end-of-an-vonage-affair/#comment-101209 Thu, 24 Mar 2005 01:20:14 +0000 http://gigaom.wordpress.com/2005/03/23/end-of-an-vonage-affair/#comment-101209 I totally agree – price is never the right indicator and when come down to it the quality should carry a little premium. oh well.

]]> By: Steve Shu http://gigaom.com/2005/03/23/end-of-an-vonage-affair/#comment-101208 Thu, 24 Mar 2005 00:59:31 +0000 http://gigaom.wordpress.com/2005/03/23/end-of-an-vonage-affair/#comment-101208 Everyone give a lot of heat to the incumbent PSTN providers, and there’s good reason for that because people are looking at Skype, pre-paid international calling cards, and the like and coming to their own conclusions that the PSTN is not a good deal.

What people fail to understand is the PSTN was designed to handle a lot of things we take for granted, e.g.,
- 911 calls being nailed up to the operator position so you can’t hang up – can all VoIP providers do that – I don’t know
- what about power outages? the PSTN was designed to keep your phone powered during outages
- what about major disasters, e.g., bombs blowing up things? the PSTN was designed to handle these requirements
- what about traffic congestion and call gapping?
- what about FBI or authorities being able to wiretap under authorized situations, etc.

The list goes on and on, but all people care about is price until things go badly …

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