Jun 29 2008
Thomas Hughes, CIO of the Social Security Administration (SSA), gave a nice interview to Nick Walkerman of Washington Technology. The interview provided some insight into the VoIP deployment of the SSA.
For more on the deployment, check out our VoIP Tech Chat article.
Jun 16 2008
About a month ago, Fierce VoIP reported on VoIP quality testing conducted by Keynote Systems. The results proved quite interesting.
Keynote determined (based on testing providers such as Packet8, Vonage, Verizon VoiceWing, Lingo, etc.) that most VoIP users can expect “merely tolerable” telephone service when compared to an at&t POTS line.
One of the VoIP providers tested failed to achieve any calls with an MOS score of 4.0 or better (ouch).
Why did Voip Tech Chat wait more than a month to post this news? Patrick and Fred were too busy talking about Lifelock and Ben Affleck movies.
Oh, and Asterisk Voip News posted that a cool new IP Phone with a huge video screen is coming soon.
May 29 2008
Investing 300 million dollars over 10 years, the Social Security Administration now leads the US Government in telephony technology – simply switching to Voice over Internet (VoIP). The contract was awarded to Nortel. At first, the figure 300 million boggled us. Then, using the complex mathematical equation of 300 million dollars divided by 10 years, we determined an average cost of 30 million dollars a year.
Before you flip out and say to yourself, “My goodness (we’re keeping it G-Rated), 30 million dollars a year on phones??? What is our government thinking?”
Shocking as it may seem, we at Voip Tech Chat applaud the Social Security Administration’s decision. Sure, as huge (again easy with the fat jokes please) fans of Benjamin Franklin, Patrick and Fred often are publicly vocal and critical of decisions made by the US Government. Yet, when a good decision is made, we try to be equally supportive.
Let’s look at this more closely…
May 28 2008
If you are reading this article thinking that we’ll discuss cookware or the latest Rachel Ray recipe, you’ve come to the wrong place. At VoIP Tech Chat our mission is simple — we’re here to chat about VoIP. Think of it as Coffee Talk, without the coffee or infatuation with Barbara.
Sometimes, to discuss VoIP, we must discuss what VoIP is not — in this case, VoIP is not POTS.
POTS is the common nickname and acronym for Plain Old Telephone Service - you know, the “traditional” phone jack in your wall. The POTS system uses technology that is basically unchanged since the early 1900’s. The wires may be upgraded, sure there’s more features, but the telephone technology in use via POTS is essentially the same technology introduced before there were airplanes, highways, or even household refrigerators.
Background, aka Trivial Knowledge that Patrick would call Interesting
The telephone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell, who along with Thomas Edison, created a method of transferring voice over long distance through the use of connecting wires. Basically, one telephone would be physically connected to another.
