{"id":269,"date":"2003-02-03T11:57:55","date_gmt":"2003-02-03T09:57:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.multiplicity.dk\/?p=269"},"modified":"2003-02-03T11:57:55","modified_gmt":"2003-02-03T09:57:55","slug":"the-voice-over-ip-argument","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/krag.be\/index.php\/2003\/02\/03\/the-voice-over-ip-argument\/","title":{"rendered":"The Voice over IP argument"},"content":{"rendered":"

A common argument about delivering Internet to the developing world, is that given IP networks, VoIP is practically free. Blog.org<\/a> attributes it to my friend Howard Rheingold:<\/p>\n

Howard Rheingold<\/a> pointed out that depending on how you implement your IP network thanks to IP telephony you can get wireless telephony “thrown in” for free (though there is still the cost of IP-based “telephones” to consider, and I don’t imagine the local telephone networks would be too happy about the potential loss of revenue).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The argument is very valid, at least in theory, but it has to be remembered, that while infrastructure for Internet access (IP) can be used at no additional cost for VoIP, there is a significant increase in difficulty\/complexity.
\n
\nI’m reminded of a meeting I went to at the Danish Unix-User group on the subject of VoIP. A technical run-trough of the Open Source solutions available for this purpose. The conclusion of this meeting of technically skilled unix users was that getting this to work in a reasonable manner, short of buying fairly expensive and proprietary IP phones and switchboards, was pretty difficult. It is still difficult to get a IP-to-copper and copper-to-IP link set up based on existing computer hardware and cheap handsets. <\/p>\n

Now if you need to invest in dedicated VoIP equipment, that could still set you back over USD 500 for each unit (not counting the IP to copper gateway), which is a lot of money.<\/p>\n

Add to this, as David Brake (blog.org) correctly points out, that many governments are severely opposed to this application, and it gets still more complex. And remember that there is in fact, a good reason why many developing world governments are opposed. It’s not just short-sightedness, corruption and unwillingness to change (although those certainly play a role as well). There is a basic difference in the way revenue from international traffic is distributed.
\nTelephony traffic is split (more-or-less) evenly between each of the telco’s at either end, ie. quite a bit of revenue is generated for a national telco (or a commercial telco that then pays license-fees to the government). With IP networks, on the other hand, it is pure cost for the telco’s, who are paying the full traffic fees to the company that owns the International IP lines.<\/p>\n

Take as an example Ghana Telecom. Everytime an expat Ghanaian decides to call his family back home, a fraction of the fees he\/she pays are given to Ghana Telecom (and hence to the governmet of Ghana), and the local Ghanaian has no expenses for that call. If that same relative decides to call using a VoIP systems, Ghana Telecom has to pay the price of the traffic to their International bandwidth provider, and hence not only lose the revenue from the phone call, but also have a Ghanaian pay money to a US or European company. <\/p>\n

Now consider that in some countries over 15% of the Gross National Product is generated by the National Telcos it’s no wonder that some governments get a wee bit protectionistic over that income.
\n(Thanks in large part to Andrew McLaughlin<\/a> for explaining this situation to me).<\/p>\n

Now, this should of course largely be balanced out by the fact that VoIP is an inherently superios (and cheaper) technology, and therefore would allow much better communications, especially those initiated by people in the developing world. But it is still important to consider this loss in any move to liberate the world of communications. <\/p>\n

The ultimate conclusion of this is probably echoing David Brake’s, namely that this is a hugely complex matter, and we need more research!<\/cite>. But on a more practical level, we need to solve the complexities of setting up VoIP. There should be a simple to use, out-of-the-box, Open Source solution for VoIP, that way the political issues may still be there, but the high price, and complexity of getting this to work could be a thing of the past.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A common argument about delivering Internet to the developing world, is that given IP networks, VoIP is practically free. Blog.org attributes it to my friend Howard Rheingold: Howard Rheingold pointed out that depending on how you implement your IP network thanks to IP telephony you can get wireless telephony “thrown in” for free (though there […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1,17],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Voice over IP argument • krag.be<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/krag.be\/index.php\/2003\/02\/03\/the-voice-over-ip-argument\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Voice over IP argument • krag.be\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A common argument about delivering Internet to the developing world, is that given IP networks, VoIP is practically free. Blog.org attributes it to my friend Howard Rheingold: Howard Rheingold pointed out that depending on how you implement your IP network thanks to IP telephony you can get wireless telephony “thrown in” for free (though there […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/krag.be\/index.php\/2003\/02\/03\/the-voice-over-ip-argument\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"krag.be\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2003-02-03T09:57:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@tkrag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@tkrag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tomas\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/krag.be\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/krag.be\/\",\"name\":\"krag.be\",\"description\":\"I am multiple and various - Tomas A. Krag\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/krag.be\/#\/schema\/person\/0a3bccef1d3b78b8f864bee3ed963db0\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/krag.be\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/krag.be\/index.php\/2003\/02\/03\/the-voice-over-ip-argument\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/krag.be\/index.php\/2003\/02\/03\/the-voice-over-ip-argument\/\",\"name\":\"The Voice over IP argument • krag.be\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/krag.be\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2003-02-03T09:57:55+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2003-02-03T09:57:55+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/krag.be\/index.php\/2003\/02\/03\/the-voice-over-ip-argument\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/krag.be\/index.php\/2003\/02\/03\/the-voice-over-ip-argument\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/krag.be\/index.php\/2003\/02\/03\/the-voice-over-ip-argument\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/krag.be\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Voice over IP argument\"}]},{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/krag.be\/index.php\/2003\/02\/03\/the-voice-over-ip-argument\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/krag.be\/index.php\/2003\/02\/03\/the-voice-over-ip-argument\/#webpage\"},\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/krag.be\/#\/schema\/person\/0a3bccef1d3b78b8f864bee3ed963db0\"},\"headline\":\"The Voice over IP argument\",\"datePublished\":\"2003-02-03T09:57:55+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2003-02-03T09:57:55+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/krag.be\/index.php\/2003\/02\/03\/the-voice-over-ip-argument\/#webpage\"},\"wordCount\":663,\"commentCount\":4,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/krag.be\/#\/schema\/person\/0a3bccef1d3b78b8f864bee3ed963db0\"},\"articleSection\":{\"1\":\"Wireless\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/krag.be\/index.php\/2003\/02\/03\/the-voice-over-ip-argument\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":[\"Person\",\"Organization\"],\"@id\":\"https:\/\/krag.be\/#\/schema\/person\/0a3bccef1d3b78b8f864bee3ed963db0\",\"name\":\"Tomas\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/krag.be\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c551b8d07191bf152b7a271de3489235?s=96&d=retro&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c551b8d07191bf152b7a271de3489235?s=96&d=retro&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Tomas\"},\"logo\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/krag.be\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/linkedin.com\/in\/tkrag\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/tkrag\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Voice over IP argument • krag.be","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/krag.be\/index.php\/2003\/02\/03\/the-voice-over-ip-argument\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Voice over IP argument • krag.be","og_description":"A common argument about delivering Internet to the developing world, is that given IP networks, VoIP is practically free. Blog.org attributes it to my friend Howard Rheingold: Howard Rheingold pointed out that depending on how you implement your IP network thanks to IP telephony you can get wireless telephony “thrown in” for free (though there […]","og_url":"https:\/\/krag.be\/index.php\/2003\/02\/03\/the-voice-over-ip-argument\/","og_site_name":"krag.be","article_published_time":"2003-02-03T09:57:55+00:00","twitter_card":"summary","twitter_creator":"@tkrag","twitter_site":"@tkrag","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Tomas","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/krag.be\/#website","url":"https:\/\/krag.be\/","name":"krag.be","description":"I am multiple and various - Tomas A. Krag","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/krag.be\/#\/schema\/person\/0a3bccef1d3b78b8f864bee3ed963db0"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/krag.be\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/krag.be\/index.php\/2003\/02\/03\/the-voice-over-ip-argument\/#webpage","url":"https:\/\/krag.be\/index.php\/2003\/02\/03\/the-voice-over-ip-argument\/","name":"The Voice over IP argument • krag.be","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/krag.be\/#website"},"datePublished":"2003-02-03T09:57:55+00:00","dateModified":"2003-02-03T09:57:55+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/krag.be\/index.php\/2003\/02\/03\/the-voice-over-ip-argument\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/krag.be\/index.php\/2003\/02\/03\/the-voice-over-ip-argument\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/krag.be\/index.php\/2003\/02\/03\/the-voice-over-ip-argument\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/krag.be\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Voice over IP argument"}]},{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/krag.be\/index.php\/2003\/02\/03\/the-voice-over-ip-argument\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/krag.be\/index.php\/2003\/02\/03\/the-voice-over-ip-argument\/#webpage"},"author":{"@id":"https:\/\/krag.be\/#\/schema\/person\/0a3bccef1d3b78b8f864bee3ed963db0"},"headline":"The Voice over IP argument","datePublished":"2003-02-03T09:57:55+00:00","dateModified":"2003-02-03T09:57:55+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/krag.be\/index.php\/2003\/02\/03\/the-voice-over-ip-argument\/#webpage"},"wordCount":663,"commentCount":4,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/krag.be\/#\/schema\/person\/0a3bccef1d3b78b8f864bee3ed963db0"},"articleSection":{"1":"Wireless"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/krag.be\/index.php\/2003\/02\/03\/the-voice-over-ip-argument\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"https:\/\/krag.be\/#\/schema\/person\/0a3bccef1d3b78b8f864bee3ed963db0","name":"Tomas","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/krag.be\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c551b8d07191bf152b7a271de3489235?s=96&d=retro&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c551b8d07191bf152b7a271de3489235?s=96&d=retro&r=g","caption":"Tomas"},"logo":{"@id":"https:\/\/krag.be\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/linkedin.com\/in\/tkrag","https:\/\/twitter.com\/tkrag"]}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8poVB-4l","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":384,"url":"https:\/\/krag.be\/index.php\/2003\/07\/23\/more-voip-over-wifi\/","url_meta":{"origin":269,"position":0},"title":"More VoIP over WiFi","date":"23\/07\/2003","format":false,"excerpt":"The Register: Agere designs wireless VoIP chipset Media attention is growing in the area of Voice over WiFi. Enabling Wireless PDA's or dedicated phone handsets to communicate via standard Voice-over-IP, would allow really low-cost, mobile telephony in the office, the warehouse or the home. One of the more important recent\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Wireless"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":326,"url":"https:\/\/krag.be\/index.php\/2003\/03\/28\/shameless-plug-follow-up\/","url_meta":{"origin":269,"position":1},"title":"Shameless plug – follow-up","date":"28\/03\/2003","format":false,"excerpt":"After a number of requests (well actually two), I've thrown together a quick translation of the article on Ghana Telecom in which I am heavily quoted. I posted this shameless plug yesterday. And got these comments: Tomas I am going have to learn danish if I want to keep reading\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "ict4dev"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":493,"url":"https:\/\/krag.be\/index.php\/2006\/03\/22\/the-security-challenge-of-open-wireless-networks\/","url_meta":{"origin":269,"position":2},"title":"The Security Challenge of Open Wireless Networks","date":"22\/03\/2006","format":false,"excerpt":"**Disclosure**: I am currently in the proccess of interviewing for a job with [Fon](http:\/\/fon.com\/) and this piece is largely a result of me spending time (for the first time in years) on the challenges of shared wireless in the rich countries of the west (rather than thinking mostly about the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "ict4dev"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":505,"url":"https:\/\/krag.be\/index.php\/2006\/10\/02\/chillispot-howto\/","url_meta":{"origin":269,"position":3},"title":"Chillispot Howto","date":"02\/10\/2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I wrote this howto on setting up a hotspot system on ubuntu with user authentication about a year ago, but the site that hosted it seems to have gone down. Here's the original link: http:\/\/140.105.28.77:3455\/1\/62 And here's the text as stolen from google cache (please excuse the horrible formatting): Goal\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Wireless"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":391,"url":"https:\/\/krag.be\/index.php\/2003\/08\/06\/voice-over-wireless-in-laos\/","url_meta":{"origin":269,"position":4},"title":"Voice over Wireless in Laos","date":"06\/08\/2003","format":false,"excerpt":"Glenn Fleishman notes a story over at NetworkWorldFusion: VoIP unwired Converged voice\/data network projects can be tough, especially if you can't use any wires. That's what Mike Burns, a systems integrator, discovered when a client asked him to provide voice and data services to a gold-mining operation in the middle\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "ict4dev"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":294,"url":"https:\/\/krag.be\/index.php\/2003\/02\/13\/more-on-voip-over-wifi\/","url_meta":{"origin":269,"position":5},"title":"More on VoIP over WiFi","date":"13\/02\/2003","format":false,"excerpt":"Last week I posted, regarding the readiness of current WiFi technologies to deliever low-cost VoIP. My argument was mostly about the complexity and additional cost for handsets, and VoIP gateways etc. But according to","rel":"","context":"In "Wireless"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/krag.be\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/krag.be\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/krag.be\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/krag.be\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/krag.be\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/krag.be\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/krag.be\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/krag.be\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/krag.be\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}