VOIP Helps To Bury Traditional Long Distance
The State | 12/31/2004 | Bidding farewell to what will soon be obsolete
Vonage and other consumer VOIP companies are contributing to the demise of traditional long-distance service according to thestate.com
Long distance doesn’t mean much to a 17-year-old who can call friends in a dozen states and never have to worry how much it will cost, as long as she doesn’t go over her wireless minutes.Other technologies are on the way out as well. Get the full story here. --------And that — more than anything — is why the whole concept of long distance is on its way out.
Though the disappearance of long distance has played out gradually, 2004 was a signal year in its demise.
In July, AT&T — the once venerable Ma Bell herself — announced the company would stop marketing long-distance service to consumers. Then, bloodied by Federal Communications Commission decisions that went against them, longtime long-distance giants MCI and Sprint quietly followed AT&T's lead. When Sprint announced this month it would merge with Nextel Communications, the deal was all about wireless.
For today’s long-distance caller, the choices are many:
Yet some things never change. Competition might be high. Rates might be low. But 17-year-olds everywhere have proved their ability to run up enormous phone bills, just like in the old days. Only now, it takes a little more talking than it used to.
- A bundled wireline plan from one of the big phone companies
- Internet calling with an upstart like Vonage
- A cell phone plan that measures minutes, not miles
- Even service through cable TV and satellite companies
