[SATLUG] [OT] Cell phone rant / open source idea

[Bruce Dubbs]

Brad Knowles wrote:

> Voice is voice and data is data and never the twain shall meet, so far
> as they are concerned.

I understand the context of your comment, but the idea expressed above
is wrong.  Its all bits.  It doesn't matter if it is text, voice,
images, or video.  Some bits need to be delivered in 'real time' (that
is, the timing of the reception affects the perceived results) and
others don't.

Some data is two way (e.g. voice, net meeting, email), and some is one
way (ftp, html, net radio, etc).

The developers of the internet foresaw all of this (udp, tcp, IP
multicast, etc).

Vendors discriminating based on content type are merely trying to
postpone the inevitable and protect their revenue stream.  This will
only work temporarily.

It will be interesting to see what happens when Google establishes
themselves as a national ISP as they continue to buy up much of the dark
fiber in the US and establish data centers all over the country.

  -- Bruce