ownphone

Issue #44

Last Update March 2, 2006

Technology Be Your Own Telephone Company by David Katz The internet has proven a liberating force in many different ways. At a time when media conglomerates have drastically reduced the number of newspapers, independent radio stations and TV stations, the internet has exploded with ezines, bloggers and wikis to keep news and knowledge flowing and provide outlets for maverick points of view. Where fewer and fewer record companies locked music creation and distribution into a tight corporate mold, the internet has provided a world wide distribution channel for composers, lyricists and performers who are tired of the big company ripoff, or whose work doesn't fit the straitjacket of market research. Email, file transfer protocols and collaborative software allow everyone to be his or her own Fedex. Now, through something called Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP), the internet is ready to enable each of us to be our own telephone company.

Taking advantage of the internet protocol for data transmission to transmit digitized sound, VoIP allows voice messages and conversations to be transmitted from computer to computer, anywhere in the world, free, as long as both computers are using VoIP software. Furthermore, services exit (for pay) that will extend the reach of VoIP to regular phones and cell phones, at a cost of about two cents per minute. All that is required to participate is a computer, equipped with a headset (you can use speakers and a microphone if you want), a sound card (most computers already have sound cards sufficient for the task), a VoIP program (which can be downloaded free from several different sources), and, if you want some extra goodies like the ability to reach real telephones, or know when someone you want to call is on line (like in instant messaging),a subscription to one of the VoIP telephone services, like Skype or Vonage.

Where does being your own telephone company come in? Small businesses, people who travel a lot, and people with large homes with many extensions (or several homes) can set up their own switchboard to handle and reroute calls, allow inter-extension calls, do voice mail, get free call forwarding, and all the other things that the telephone company's Centrex or a small business' local switchboard can do. All that's needed is an inexpensive interface card that allows you to plug a real phone into your computer, and a free, open-source program called XXX that you can download an install, and that does all the work for you. To get a free link between your regular home and your vacation home, you plug your home telephone line into the interface card, define your home and vacation phones as extensions, and set up an internet connection between the two houses. A caller ringing your home phone will get your home phone, voice mail or your vacation phone, depending on how the system is set up. The caller need never know that you are at your vacation home (or traveling, with a laptop, which can be implemented as easily); they always dial your regular number. The same scheme allows a small business which doesn't have an office, or whose workers usually work at home, to establish a business number and then connect all employees by VoIP. A caller dialing the “office” number can be connected to the appropriate person, even if he is 3,000 miles away. To the outside world, this setup appears to be an office with several extensions. In April, cell phones will become available with WiFi connectivity, allowing you to do VoIP from any free wireless hotspot, or the local Starbucks, as if you were in the office.

In addition to the convenience, and the massive savings in equipment for small businesses that otherwise would have bought or leased a local switchboard device, there is a cost savings on the calls themselves. Computer to computer calls are free, anywhere in the world. Similarly, computer to phone, phone to computer, and phone to computer to phone calls are the same two cents per minute whether you are calling next door or halfway around the world.

Voice quality and reliability of the regular telephone system are unbeatable. VoIP does not reach that standard, but it exceeds the reliability and voice quality of cell phones, which may be good enough to attract widespread use. Nevertheless, you should keep a regular phone connection available for emergencies such as power outages and problems with your internet provider.

Most of the internet functions unenvisioned at its inception have served to free the individual from reliance on large companies for a variety of functions. Telephony is the latest of these, and the phone companies are still trying to figure out what their role will be in this new era.