Text 35206, 60 rader
Skriven 2009-08-21 00:09:19 av Michiel van der Vlist (2:280/5555)
     Kommentar till en text av Nick Andre (1:229/427)
Ärende: Future of FidoNet
=========================
Hello Nick,

On Wednesday August 19 2009 21:10, you wrote to me:

 >> POTS is a dead end. Telcos are switching to VOIP, Analog telephony
 >> is being phased out. That will be the end of classic modem calls.
 >> See my FidoNews article of september 2008 and the two follow ups.

[..]

 NA> I think the only "POTS" that will exist yet for a number of years
 NA> (like probably the next 10 to 20) will be the fax machine.

I very much doubt that FAX will last for another decade, let alone two.

Althoug FAX is less demanding on the line than V34, so it may work over VOIP, I
expect it to die out in favour of e-mail. Just like the Telex has become
history ten years ago.

 NA> Then theres the issue of POS equipment (credit card processing
 NA> terminals) which a lot of them still communicate at analog 2400 baud.
 NA> There are obviously newer ones that do IPv4 secure Internet
 NA> transactions but a lot of businesses still use the old ones.

Here we have the problem that old people's alarm machines do not work any more.
When thet push a buttom, the machine dials out to a central alarm post and it
sends a message by modem. They have to be replaced by something that works over
VOIP or dsl..

 NA> There is absolutely no incentive in this country to completely and
 NA> totally phase out analog in favor of digital.

 NA> It very well may be all the rage in Europe, but there is just simply
 NA> too much legacy infrastructure, too much installed base of analog
 NA> stuff (and for Grant, too much IPv4), plus our economy sucks right
 NA> now...

Here in Europe, it is an unstoppable process. What once was a row of racks
filling an entire building - the local telephone exchange - is now a box in a
corner. Freeing the rest of the building for other stuff. Such as routers,
switches and dslams.

 NA> A major chain of banks in this country still runs on AS/400 servers,
 NA> in some small towns with the Victorian style buildings, still propped
 NA> up on 2x4's with the wires tied high so the rats in the basement

"remmende voorsprong" as we call it.

For some time the former East Germany had the most modern telephone system.
When the wall fell, and they started upgrading, they found that he old stuff
was so old, that the best way was to just throw it all out and start from
scratch.

Maybe Canada should follow that example...


Cheers, Michiel

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