At 02:04 p.m. 31/12/2008, Scott Howard wrote:
As I said earlier, I don't see ENUM(*) as a home-user thing - it's a VOIP provider thing. How many calls go out of Internode (or MNF or Vonage or any other provider) today that traverse the PSTN network only to terminate on another VOIP providers system? At what cost?
Sure, if someone wants to come out with an ATA that does ENUM(*) then bonus to the people that use it - they get free calls to some people (probably along with several NAT-traversal issues), but the real win here is for the providers.
Sorry - I do see VoIP peering as an end user thing and I'd love my ATAs to be able to peer. If they can't then maybe my VoIP provider would offer that to me as a service. I'm a small business (me + one part-timer) yet we use 20+ lines and 5 or 6 ISPs. The ISPs are used depending on their peering reach on a job-by-job basis and on their network type and reach. Equally, I use the VoIP with either AKl or WLG numbers, because I get local calls for free. ie I do a peer connection. My clients often use cell phones for 10-12 hours a day non-stop, or go hunting for a landline (or sidle up to my van and borrow a line). Sometimes I freight an ATA overseas or to another location, just so they can call me (using AKL numbers) for free. (we use ATAs because they give analog outputs to go into hybrids) What I'm leading to is that end users have this pressure for lower costs and will find solutions, even if they are somewhat ad hoc. What we are talking about is adding structure and interoperability to this, so that we don't see a huge proliferation in ad hoc solutions. When WIX was first mooted in '96-97, the I stood for Information, not Internet. It was envisaged that internetworking would take place including, voice and video. The initial voice discussions were about linking PABXs with E1 and DNSS (if I recall correctly). As an Internetworking group we should try and solve this issue (VoIP Peering), otherwise users will have all sorts of alternative ad hoc solutions to get voice between organisations and by passing the PSTN. The call volumes may be low, but NZ also used to hang off one 9700bps modem. And so did Australia.