Comments on: VOIP as a patriotic alternative

By: octavia

octavia — Mon, 15 May 2006 22:24:20 +0000

I work for a VOIP provider, this is the enforcement vehicle the Feds use: http://www.askcalea.net/ It can be required, and may be at most providers. Feds can come in and require it. This is the ONLY way they can monitor VOIP traffic or internet traffic, that we know of. VOIP is very secure, otherwise. I suppose you can ask your VOIP provider if they are using CALEA.

By: 11:11

11:11 — Sun, 14 May 2006 19:10:30 +0000

sorry to rain on your parade.
your VOIP communications are almost gaurenteed to cross the network of the ATT, verizon, Bell.
or Qwest. all your internet activities has crossed their switches.
i new Verizon had installed something when their entire dsl network went down on floridas west coast for 7 hours in the middle of the week several months ago. i thought why would they do major work in the middle of the week.
my conclusion was that federal employees would not work nights or weekends.

By: badgervan

badgervan — Sun, 14 May 2006 18:56:28 +0000

Check out Working Assets.

By: Vi

Vi — Sun, 14 May 2006 17:38:38 +0000

You know its had to be bad if Joe Nachio is afraid to break the law.
Never thought I would be so proud of the company I work for.

By: Vi

Vi — Sun, 14 May 2006 17:38:16 +0000

You know its had to be bad if Joe Nachio is afraid to break the law.
Never thought I would be so proud of the place I work.

By: Harrison

Harrison — Sun, 14 May 2006 17:32:26 +0000

VOIP may be only half a solution, at best. It’s likely that the receiving party will be logged by their telephone company even if the calling party isn’t. Beyond this, available software these days (www.narus.com) can dig deep into packets and resolve all kinds of VOIP data. What’s to keep Vonage from revealing their data as the telephone companies are?

By: Geoff

Geoff — Sat, 13 May 2006 15:39:46 +0000

Does Vonage offer cheap, basic local service? I use my cell phone for all long-distance calls, so I only need a stripped down, $10 a month or so service for the phone line and local calling. Can’t find anything like it on the Vonage site, though.

By: wp.lasvegas

wp.lasvegas — Sat, 13 May 2006 15:12:53 +0000

Would the indecent justification be that the telcos get to carve up the internet for profit and play stool pigeons on our email too?

By: fishbane

fishbane — Sat, 13 May 2006 15:02:45 +0000

If you're technically inclined, look in to running your own private PBX. http://asteriskathome.sourceforge.net/ is pretty easy to set up. Using it, you can completely bypass telcos for calling like-minded pals. You can also encrypt your calls, if you like, although that imposes a bit of delay which damages the experience but provides a nice subversive feel to the whole thing. Plus, you can create your own phone trees - always fun for transfering telemarketers to. custom voice mail, extensions, etc., too. Software's free, but you need a spare PC and a ~$100 PCI card. If you enjoy tech, it is easy, and even if you don't, it isn't hard.

By: jJ. Wellers

jJ. Wellers — Sat, 13 May 2006 14:48:03 +0000

One big problem with VOIP:for those who live where lengthy power outages occur, no power means no VOIP. Sure,you’ve got your cell phone, but when it needs recharging, your out of luck.

By: Rob

Rob — Sat, 13 May 2006 12:20:30 +0000

Since most small long distance telecos need to lease network space from the large ones, the large ones had all the switching data. I wonder if they turned that over too.
And of course SBC is now AT&T, just to show that they are The Phone Company.

By: Tim Worstall

Tim Worstall — Sat, 13 May 2006 10:14:34 +0000

Shoot Admirals, not hang them (�twas Admiral Byng I think) but yes, I second the Skype idea.

By: James Wimberley

James Wimberley — Sat, 13 May 2006 08:02:54 +0000

PS: I’ve just checked the Skype web pages, and there is a central server for contacts (though not, I still think, for the calls made to them). So if Skype did cooperate, Big Brother could find out if Osama’s on your buddy list. Which would be perfectly OK with a targeted warrant.

By: James Wimberley

James Wimberley — Sat, 13 May 2006 07:52:22 +0000

Try Skype – it really is free for calls to another Skype user, even with video, and the software is in the Google class for usability. The calls are encrypted and the peer-to-peer model means that there is no central user database, so the inbuilt privacy protection looks pretty good. But ultimately your privacy depends on cultural factors: the firm is Swedish and Estonian, i.e. based in one country with a strong data protection culture and another with recent experience of Big Brother.