March 18th, 2005
How ISPs plan to quietly kill VoIP upstarts
A recent post on Russell Shaw’s blog called attention to a technical issue with AT&T’s underperforming CallAdvantage Internet phone service. A member of the VoIP Forum said that after installing the service he noticed a significant drop in his broadband connection, specifically, from 6Mbps to 1.5-1.8 Mbps. Curious, Shaw asked his readers for an explanation. User Roger Ramjet offered one up, a link to a post on Bob Cringley’s blog. Cringley’s informative piece gives an eye-opening look at the anticompetitive behavior of some ISPs who are showing up late to the VoIP game. If nothing else explains it, the drop in performance may be due to a sneaky method phone and cable companies are using to hurt VoIP upstarts. Cringely explains:
Here’s how they plan to cripple the Vonages and Skype’s, according to friends of mine who have spent 20+ years in engineering positions at telephone companies, cable companies and internet service providers. As the phone and cable companies begin offering their own VoIP services in real volume, they plan to "tag" their own VoIP packets so that at least within their own networks, their VoIP service will have COS (Class of Service) assignments with their routers, switches, etc. They also plan on implementing distinct Virtual Local Area Networks (VLANs) for the tagged packets.
The tough part is that this practice is legtitimate according to Cringley. But have no fear, new VoIP models like thesitchboard.ca can’t be touched.
