Let's gear up for VOIP

[nicroets]

Let's get busy. Let's design and build all the infrastructure necessary for the big switch-on on 1/2/05, so that it will run on existing bandwidth. What's needed is :

1. A high-level protocol that will determine the best low-level protocol / codec that 2 phones can use. Does any one know if such a thing already exists ?

2. A server / database to translate 10 digit South African dialling codes to URLs (hostnames and port numbers?). This will allow computer illiterate people to transparently switch to VOIP and PABXs to do least cost routing.

I'm willing to donate a lot of my time to write such a system.

3. Suppliers for
a. WLAN handsets ?
b. VOIP PABXses that plugs in to the LAN ?


<center>MyWireless Tower Distance Calculator (http://rational.co.za/MyWireless/calculate.html)
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[loosecannon]

for a very good breakdown of options have a look at the following sites ... using the h.323 protocol

http://www.asterisk.org/
http://www.digium.com/
http://www.iaxprovider.net/
http://www.openh323.org/
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/VoIP-HOWTO.html

[nicroets]

One more question. How popular will VOIP become ? I'll assume people will adopt it wherever it works out cheaper.

So let's assume someone (or business) without a computer who makes a lot of telephone calls (R900/m or more) decides to get an ADSL line + modem / LAN gateway + VOIP phone.

Total capital costs : R1500 (est.)
(Been looking at snom200)
Depreciated over 2 years : R60/m
ADSL connection cost '05 : R900/m

So for about R1000/m you can talk for about 200 hours / month (assuming 4KBps encoding and 3 GB cap) to another VOIP phone.



<center>MyWireless Tower Distance Calculator (http://rational.co.za/MyWireless/calculate.html)
MyTransponder (http://rational.co.za/MyTransponder/)</center>

[loosecannon]

the big bennefit will be long haul over VPN ie inter city routing and also for routing international
calls for say outsourced call centre ...

i will use VOiP to drop telkom and by telephony from a ISP like IS/DataSlow/BTG ... where ill be able to make calls to anywhere in the country at local rates VoIP-VoIP free ...

[freeek]

"DataSlow" ....?

..- dot dot dash ;)

[nicroets]

If you look at Telkom's pricing structure, you'll see that it has been designed so that they make the maximum amount of money.

E.g. they charge businesses a higher monthly line rental. Installing and maintaining a business line is much easier than installing and maintaining a residential line, because businesses are all nicely clustered into a few buildings and not spread out all over the place.

E.g. R7 infinite call is not allowed on business lines.
E.g. Callmore time excludes business hours.

VOIP will help to break these discrimination mechanisms.

Waiting for your ISP to offer you a VOIP product, is a mistake. Then the economic power will shift from Telkom to the ISPs. If businesses insist on using open protocols like the ones you mention, then ISPs can only charge for the bandwidth capacity they sell.


<center>MyWireless Tower Distance Calculator (http://rational.co.za/MyWireless/calculate.html)
MyTransponder (http://rational.co.za/MyTransponder/)</center>

[Nickste]

Lo all,

This might be a bit off topic, but I'll shoot anyway...

I basically want to know how this new announcement of legalised VOIP and the choice in the provision of value added network services is going to affect me. What can i do with it? Will prices go down?

Any comments appreciated ;-)

Chow, Nick

Nick Smit
broadband@nicksmit dot za dot net

[nicroets]

If users aren't ready to start using it, Telkom won't feel threatented and rates wouldn't go down.

You may soon after 1/2/05 see a number of companies offer all kinds of services : Calling long distance / overseas for slightly more than the call to a local number. Or calling for almost nothing from your computer. Cheap conference calls. Video phones.

Many of these services are already technically possible if you sign up on an overseas website / import the equipment. From 1/2/05 it will be legal.


<center>MyWireless Tower Distance Calculator (http://rational.co.za/MyWireless/calculate.html)
MyTransponder (http://rational.co.za/MyTransponder/)</center>

[nicroets]

I've played around with the speakfreely.org VOIP phone. In principle it's possible to run it minimized on all PCs. Then the PCs will need to be equipted with full duplex soundcards, microphones and speakers.
Like MS Netmeeting and the snom, it's H323 based.

To make these phones reachable from the internet, one would open the port on the firewall / broadband router. My el-cheapo broadband router (ARM8/904) specifically makes provision for allowing H323 connections.

Then one would (presumably) run a software gatekeeper (http://opengatekeeper.sourceforge.net/) so that the incoming call is forwarded to the right PC.



<center>MyWireless Tower Distance Calculator (http://rational.co.za/MyWireless/calculate.html)
MyTransponder (http://rational.co.za/MyTransponder/)</center>

[Nickste]

Kewl, but surely Telkom would charge ISP's providing VOIP a fair whack to allow them to call Telkom landlines. For example: If i want to call my neighbour, and he doesn't use VOIP, I would have to phone his landline phone. Surely Telkom would charge for this connection.

Chow, Nick

Nick Smit
broadband@nicksmit dot za dot net

[loosecannon]

well to break in and out of a H323 network is quite easy and all you need is the correct module installed on your PABX and use existing infrustructure ... the problem is telkom is in a catch 22 they cant make calls/line rental more expensive to counter this and rhe SNO will probably start off using a predominantly wireless [microwave] VOIP network and will be able to offer services even cheaper to undercut telkom ...

remember the contracts telkom has got people to sign is now a double edged sword those with spare capacity can now resell it to VOIP operators and telkom is stuck in a contract and cant do much about it ...

[Perdition]

Well initially VOIP to local landlines will cost about the same as it does now, however the savings will come in with VOIP to VOIP and international calls. This will mostly benefit businesses in the near term but should quickly spread to the general public.

[Jerrek]

I wonder how this will affect our prices for calls to South Africa. Currently we pay 10¢ [R0.52] per minute if you use a VoIP provider. It means Telkom must have some arrangements with some foreign companies. Maybe that is a point to consider...

[freephone]

Jerrek,

Am I correct in understanding that you are paying 10c to connect to a landline in SA through your Voip provider in Canada? If so plse post the name of the provider.

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Jerrek</i>
<br />I wonder how this will affect our prices for calls to South Africa. Currently we pay 10¢ [R0.52] per minute if you use a VoIP provider. It means Telkom must have some arrangements with some foreign companies. Maybe that is a point to consider...
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

[netaddict]

Hi

This may of interest, I found a SA VoIP provider , calls to the USA are 20c a minute, and they also have a IP phone. the URL is http://www.phonehome.co.za