eljuan - 1:04 am on Sep 1, 2005 (gmt 0)

A common misconception about voip is that it is free. It's not.

Most voip calls today still terminate on the pstn or cell phone tower, so there is still a charge for providers of voip services because they still pay termination fees (in addition to the large capital investments required for equipment and pops in every major NFL city).

What's cool (or scary) about what Google is doing (buying dark fiber and hiring telco techs) and Microsoft with voip technology can do, is if enough people have it downloaded as a client, one can avoid the pstn termination alltogether. A critical mass of SIP enabled clients is what will finally kill the old POTS network.

And right through my laptop speakers and a $12 mike, my Google talk calls sound as good as my vonage line with a $150 Cisco ATA adaptor.

Amazing considering thisd is their first attempt at a SIP stack and the client is extremely light.

Wow.