Long Distance
November 17, 2003
What
is "long distance"? I would define a long distance as something that
takes a long time to cover; e.g. flying
to Singapore requires going a long distance. It takes more than 24 hours
to get there. When it comes to telecommunications, however, the term "long
distance" has little meaning. Packets of ones and zeroes travel over the
Internet at nearly the speed of light. It takes a quarter of a second or less
to send a packet of one thousand zeroes and ones from New York to California.
To send the packet to Singapore might take a half of a second. In both cases,
depending on conditions, the time might be different by plus or minus a quarter
of a second. In other words there isn't much difference. So why is the cost
of a telephone call different by one or more orders of magnitude? The answer
lies in part in the fact that people have not had an alternative to expensive
long distance services. That is no longer the case. (read
more)
There are many choices available if you want to use your cable or DSL Internet connection to make long distance calls. I previously wrote about my experience with Net2Phone. A "full service" choice would be something like Vonage. I decided to try a service called Packet8. Packet8 charges $19.95 per month for unlimited calls in the U.S. and Canada. The rates for International calling are a fraction of what "normal" long distance providers charge. After enrolling on-line, Packet8 sends you a small "appliance" which you plug into your home network. There is no charge for the device and there are no contract commitments. My device arrived on Friday. I plugged it into my home LAN, plugged a Radio Shack phone into the device, and called my brother in upstate New York. No setup. So far the quality has been quite good. You can go to the Packet8 website and see a real-time record of all your calls.
Packet8 uses a standard voice-over-IP protocol called "SIP" and proprietary software that allows Packet8 endpoints to work on home networks even if they have firewalls (which they all should). The Packet8 "Desktop Terminal Adapter" uses an advanced voice compression protocol to maximize voice quality and minimize delays that may be introduced as a result of using the Internet. The company claims that in many instances Packet8's voice quality exceeds that available on the normal telephone network or cell phone networks. I can not say that I have noticed that, although the quality has certainly been acceptable.
One feature of Packet8 that I like is that you can choose your own area code and you actually get assigned a real phone number so that people can call you on your Packet8 number if you want. Other nice features include...
Real time billing
Online
account management
Unlimited
calling between Packet8 subscribers
Personalized
voicemail
Low international
rates
No long
term commitments required
Toll free
telephone support and email support
Programmable
Call forwarding with online access
Caller
ID
Caller
ID blocking
Plug and
Play installation
As services such as Packet8 proliferate, we will have
a lot to think about. The main issue is whether you want a service that uses
a different phone number than the one you already have and are accusomted to?
Number portability will change this factor but it is not yet available in some
states. Will the quality be acceptable? I am still testing my new SIP phone.
The quality is ok but not great. I have to experiment some more to discover
why. I have no doubt that as the quality will be adequate as time moves forward.
Regular long distance rates are coming down. I have a plan with SBC/SNET that
gives me 300 minutes per month for $18 and I get a credit of $5 for using their
DSL service. That is a very good rate but the international rates are extremely
high. The good news is that "Adam
Smith's invisible hand" is at work on bandwidth and we will continue
to see more speed and lower prices.
Calling
Joi