able companies are following this approach. To protect revenues, US West, Bell Atlantic, and Southwestern Bell have provided for tariffing and will tax a VoIP call. Next Generation Telco’s:Service providers are also positioning themselves as next-gen telcos by adding to their Internet service offerings. Qwest is planning and implementing a high capacity, IP based fiber optic network. Its mission is to allow customers to seamlessly exchange multimedia content images, data, and voice as easily as traditional telephone networks enable voice communications. Qwest’s OC-48, IP over Sonet backbone, spanning 130 countries, is nearly complete. The Denver based company will offer an IP based integration service for business. It will be capable of taking out multiple private lines and do multiple applications over a single IP service pipe. Level 3 is another player in the Pure VoIP field. Level 3 doesn’t use compression on its network for voice calls. That allows a packet to travel from one end of the country to the other in less than 90 msec., which matches PSTN quality. Along with companies like Qwest, Level 3 is pouring billions of dollars into developing and deploying cutting edge backbones for offering IP based voice, data, and video services.Government:Another player to this game is of course the Government, Government at every level. Many questions are arising in their eyes. What defines an Internet call? How will local governments react to losing a large source of revenue that was being generated from local telephone calls? Some foreign governments are already taking a stand against VoIP. Pakistan’s Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, due to losing revenue to VoIP, has banned voice over the Net. The Government players will ultimately have the most profound effect on how this technology plays out. This player needs to be closely watched.ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF VoIPThere are numerous...
