I left it this late in the discussion, because it's almost OT and
likewise very difficult[1] to get to Australia.
I'm using something called Vonage
http://www.vonage.com/
They got profiled in The Economist a few months back, and I subsequently
saw some guy at a conference plugged in using it, so I learned it wasn't
vapourware.
Their VoIP system is very locked in, their servers, their hardware, etc
etc, but they do one thing which is awesome - they are fully plugged
into the Public Switched Telephone Network, and have [American] FCC
approval to operate. What's awesome is that they have divorced the ide
of area-code and location. So, in North American terms, I can have a 646
[New York] phone number, but be sitting in Colorado. Or Montreal.
Or Sydney.
They recently got a bank of Toronto numbers [so have an access tandem
there at least], so have almost crossed the
how-do-we-operate-internationally barrier.
Are they coming to Oz? Doubt it anytime soon, but if they pulled off one
international, then more international can't be far behind.
[1] Unfortunately, at time of writing they only deliver to US mailing
addresses. So, I had to use a friends US domestic address to receive the
thing, then have them post it onwards. Real pain.
Vonage know people do this, and while they dont [technical,billing]
support it, they do realize lots of their customers are doing it and
seem to be steadily moving the direction of this working.
AfC
Who is
646-472-5054 in New York [USA], and
416-848-6072 in Toronto [Canada]
which all rings on line 2 of his phone in his office in Sydney, which is
connected to Vonage's little [Motorola] VoIP box sitting on the floor,
which is just one node on my SOHO network, uplink is ADSL.
--
Andrew Frederick Cowie
Operational Dynamics Consulting Pty Ltd
Australia: +61 2 9977 6866 North America: +1 646 472 5054
http://www.operationaldynamics.com/
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