Net calls to take on landlines

Grok Headline matches for Net calls to take on landlines

BT plugs talking SMS into landlines

BT plugs talking SMS into landlines 08/06/2004 08:06 AM
Computer Buyer Aug 6 2004 12:26PM GMT

A Tale of Cell Phones and Landlines

A Tale of Cell Phones and Landlines 12/30/2003 01:37 AM
Jim finds out that cheap isn't always better.

China mobiles outstrip landlines

China mobiles outstrip landlines 01/07/2004 02:22 PM
China has more mobiles than traditional ones, thanks to falls in the price of handsets and services.

FCC confirms that landlines are subject
to new portability rules, too

FCC confirms that landlines are subject
to new portability rules, too 11/12/2003 01:06 PM
There had been a little bit of confusion about this, but the FCC has spelled it out for the telephone companies: number portability applies to landlines too, and will be requiring the local telephone companies to let their customers transfer their number to a cellphone. As long as it's technically feasible and within the same geographic area, that is. Read...

A proposal for Wifi-hubs to be built
into landlines...

A proposal for Wifi-hubs to be built
into landlines... 07/11/2004 06:19 PM

So I've been thinking a lot about ubiquitous home networks recently, and the ways in which various appliances might start hooking up to the internet and through the internet to other people - social hardware if you will - and the problem keeps coming back to how you introduce the network into the home in the first place. There needs to be a way of wrapping all the core parts of a home in a network without it being something that requires complex set-up and specialised hardware. It also seems to me that the key to true ubiquity is to detach the networking completely from a its current reliance on a computer. Your home network of the future should not require a perpetually-on computer in a cupboard. Your gran should be able to have the benefits of internet enabled appliances without having to figure out the configuration of modems and puzzle their way through a complex OS-based interface.

And if - as I assume - we're talking about wrapping the home in a wireless network, then it also seems to me that we should be looking for a way to do all this without introducing lots more widgets and boxes and cables around the place. Ideally - we would also try and avoid having little appliances stuck into random power supplies around the house (unless of course we can take them in a different direction and use them as control nodes as well as bridges cf. Airport Express - but more on that kind of paradigm another time). Essentially, we need a model in which home, net-enabled networks are treated more like a utility than a technology - more like water or electricity provision than ...

Okay - so now we've got the criteria in place, how should we go about making this wifi-enabled network space? Probably the place to start is at the bridge between the appliance (including potentially a computer) and the network. Since these appliance could be in pretty much every room, then the first thing we're going to need is a series of wifi points littered around the premises. These ideally would cover the entire home, but if they couldn't cover it completely they'd have to be in key areas like kitchens, studies, sitting rooms, bedrooms and the like. They would not be as useful initially in storage areas, hallways, lavatories, bathrooms or on stairs - although clearly it would be an advantage if the bled into those areas. These points need to be powered in some way and they'd presumably need to connect with one another as wifi bridges. One of these appliances has to be able to connect to the internet. More than likely they'll do this via the telecommunications grid through a phone socket. And then there will have to be some kind of interface for setting up the connection and protecting it with some kind of password, encrypted and connectable to by some kind of industry standard protocol. This interface would not need to do anything else, but conceivably could do...

So here's my contention. Given that it would seem to be a good thing to split the provision of wireless network access from computers, and given that we'll still need an interface and given that we need a point in all the core rooms of a home and given that we need to connect this network to the telephone network in some way - isn't the telephone itself the ideal appliance to be the heart of the home network? Unlike the television or the radio or the stereo, any place in a home where people are likely to spend a lot of time is likely to have a telephone point in or near it. They have small interfaces on them already - a numeric keypad for one and often a small LCD screen for recording input, and they're already connected physically to the telephone network.

So here's what I'm thinking - and forgive the slightly ugly 80s styling of the phone itself. I tried to do something beautiful and isometric but it came out looking really nasty. So we make do with gradient fills and basic Illustrator shapes...

So the ADSL modem and wifi antenna/bridge/hub are both included within the device. This means that in terms of buying a wifi network for your house, all you have to do is purchase the phone and plug it into a phone socket. By sticking an Ethernet port into the base of the phone you could immediately use it to connect to printers or any non-wifi enabled networkable device. If you bought a second phone, however, it would operate like a wifi bridge (there's already considerable precedent for hubs also acting as bridges - with the Airport Extreme being the most recent example), extending the network around the home. If ADSL modems did not reduce significantly in cost, then perhaps you could remove that from the additional phone units, creating master and slave phones, each of which could be strung together to extend the network still further. If ADSL modems came down in price, however, it might be useful to build them into all the devices - allowing each phone unit to negotiate with the other phones as to when it should become the dominant provider of access to the internet (ie. if the connection broke down or if it became clear that one phone could provide more throughput because of the local quality of the line or intra-phone connectivity). Either way, you'd expect the network to self-organise purely by bringing a new phone home and plugging it into a socket. The blue-lines in the following image would be self-organising connections between phones based upon proximity and strength of signal:

So now we have a wifi network in the home, where all you'd need to do to extend the network is purchase a phone and plug it in. And we have a number of devices capable of connecting to the web. Except we've left out questions of user names / passwords / encryptions and the like. Since we're talking of this service as a utility, then the most obvious way of handling it would seem to me to be to get your ADSL along with your telephony from the same operator. Since the operators already know the telephone number that the phone is plugged into (and will know this whenever you use a phone on that network) it seems most obvious to consider that telephone number to be your user name for connectivity and the name of the local network. This would mean that when the phone was initially connected it could attempt to connect immediately to the operator. At this stage the operator (or the phone) could generate a numeric key with which to access the network. All you'd have to do is plug the phone in and then ring up your operator. Since they already have security provisions in place to help identify a caller, they could easily determine that a user was legitimate and give out an initial code which said user could then use to login to the network.

In practice this would mean the entire process to set up the network was to plug in the phone, ring an activation number and get your code, hang up and type in the number. Any other phones you wanted to connect would just require you to plug them into the mains and type in the activation number. And then to login from any device all you'd have to do is connect to the network which was called your home phone number (Network Name: 020 7286 ####) using (again) the activation number. Piece of cake!

The process would have other possibilities too. By using a numeric key rather than an alphanumeric key you immediately open up the number of devices that can be easily set up to use the network. Numeric keypads are far more common than full text input devices and faster to use. It would take no time at all to connect your mobile phone, television, DVD player, Tivo, Radio, CD player, tape deck and computer to such a network. But that's just the beginning. Radio Alarm clocks have keypads, Microwave ovens have key pads. In fact the only electrical things that I can see around me in my flat that don't immediately present some kind of numeric interface are my lights, iPod, digital camera, kettle, X-box, toaster and oven - and four of those have an interface that would allow you to choose numerals in different ways.

So that's the concept in a nutshell. I can see some problems with it with regard to the separation of telecommunications services and the necessary connections that you might need to make between hardware and service providers that might make the whole thing unfeasible. I'm also more than aware that there have been explorations about ways of connecting telephones and connectivity elsewhere - some of which no doubt overlaps, encompasses or surpasses my thoughts - and no doubt I've made a few errors through the piece as well, but nonetheless I thought it was an interesting enough idea to push out into the real world and to receive feedback around. And that's what I'm after now - please feel free to leave any thoughts, fixes, suggestions or extensions below or write a post and trackback to this one, so any interested parties can follow the discussion (if there is any) more easily...

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Are Speakerphone Mobile Calls Less
Annoying Than Regular Calls?

Are Speakerphone Mobile Calls Less
Annoying Than Regular Calls? 04/21/2004 03:53 PM
Last week we noted a new study saying that people get annoyed with others talking on mobile phones because they only hear one half of the conversation. At the time, I wrote that this made sense as periods of silence followed by talking are a lot more jarring to the passive listener. However, this BBC report claims that the reason for the annoyance is that it shows that we're more curious about what the other party is saying. I'm not sure I buy that. It seems much more likely that it's the variability in noise, from silent to noisy rather than any form of curiosity. When the conversation is at a constant hum (even when loud), it's much easier to tune it out. Still, the findings do go against the opinion many people have expressed that things like "push-to-talk" where the phone usually acts as a speaker phone would be more annoying since we get to hear both sides of the conversation. In fact, the researchers behind the study are even suggesting that mobile phone makers may want to explore adding speaker phones to more phones to make them less annoying. Of course, the study only set up two conditions: a conversation on a mobile phone and a face-to-face conversation. They didn't test the speaker phone situation to see how annoying that was. It's possible that the annoyance factor comes from the inability to make use of body language to express concepts as well, leading to a different tone of voice.

Help Calls Need Help

Help Calls Need Help 08/27/2004 02:00 PM
Abcnews.go.com - Wed Aug 25, 10:11 am GMT

"calls"

"calls" 12/16/2003 03:14 AM

"calls John fat"

"calls John fat" 06/09/2004 10:55 AM

Cthulhu Calls 1.0

Cthulhu Calls 1.0 08/27/2004 01:24 PM
A skin inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft.

Nokia calls up RIM, again

Nokia calls up RIM, again 09/07/2004 10:54 AM
Pivotal role for email gateway

Optus CEO calls it a day

Optus CEO calls it a day 05/05/2004 03:58 AM
ZDNet Australia May 5 2004 7:55AM GMT

all the company calls

all the company calls 03/14/2005 05:43 PM
Tomorrow night (Thursday) I'll be performing with the Liquid Radio Players down at the ACME. Liquid Radio is an improvised...

Hooking up to Net calls

Hooking up to Net calls 08/30/2004 03:24 PM
VoIP is the belle of the telecom ball. Jotting her onto their dance cards are such well-dressed suitors as America Online and AT&T

CMA calls IP conference

CMA calls IP conference 04/01/2005 09:25 AM
Computer Weekly Apr 1 2005 2:04PM GMT

TSS Live Calls-May 26

TSS Live Calls-May 26 06/01/2004 06:37 PM
TechTV-27 minutes ago ... cooling. Travis in Ridgway, Colo., wants to know how to get an account with Google's mail service, Gmail. Gmail is by invitation only. ...

roll calls

roll calls 03/29/2005 04:27 AM

senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/vote_menu_109_1.htm
track this site | 3 links

Nature Calls

Nature Calls 05/18/2004 01:29 PM
20040518 - MiniGame

Crank calls

Crank calls 12/21/2003 09:29 PM
CNET Asia Dec 21 2003 7:58PM ET

Newspaper Calls Gambling What It Is

Newspaper Calls Gambling What It Is 04/24/2004 09:08 PM

Not once in this LA Times story (reg req) about Native American casinos' gambling revenues -- and whether the casinos should pay more to the state -- do you find the word "gaming," I'm happy to note. The gambling industry has tried to sanitize what it does by renaming the activity into something that sounds totally benign. And the media usually plays along. Not this time. A tip of the hat to whoever made that decision.

Phish calls it quits?

Phish calls it quits? 05/25/2004 04:12 PM
An announcement from Trey: "So Coventry will be the final Phish show...For the sake of clarity, I should say that this is not like the hiatus, which was our last attempt to revitalize ourselves. We're done. It's been an amazing and incredible journey."

TSS Live Calls- June 25

TSS Live Calls- June 25 06/21/2004 08:26 PM
G4 Tech TV Jun 22 2004 0:27AM GMT

Mobile IP Telephone Calls

Mobile IP Telephone Calls 05/26/2004 01:45 PM

The Feature: VoIP Goes Mobile. VoIP is slowly moving into the mobile space, as one US company offers cellular users cheap international calls.

Vonage, SBC Fight Over 911 Calls

Vonage, SBC Fight Over 911 Calls 03/30/2005 11:08 PM
Vonage is in a bit of hot water over its E911 efforts lately -- though, it seems to mostly be a political ploy. However, now comes the news that Vonage approached SBC last month about running a private trial of an E911 service that would require SBC to give Vonage access to some routers and databases. SBC refused, pointing out that if they work privately with Vonage, there are a hundred other VoIP providers who will want to work privately with them also. They would prefer to come up with standards across the board that everyone can use -- which makes a lot more sense. While Vonage's request was a bit silly, it does show they know how important the VoIP-911 issue is becoming. Update: Of course, some are claiming this means VoIP E911 service will be held up -- which is ridiculous. This is only about delaying E911 for Vonage's proprietary method of doing E911. In this case, SBC is right. There should be a standard way, across the board for VoIP providers to do E911 and connect with the telcos.

Probation, With House Calls

Probation, With House Calls 07/16/2004 06:55 AM
Several hundred juvenile offenders in Paterson, N.J., receive free home health care visits as part of their probation.

Man Keeps Getting Calls for Alicia Keys
(AP)

Man Keeps Getting Calls for Alicia Keys
(AP) 08/10/2004 04:11 PM
AP - Fans of Alicia Keys keep calling her number, but only J.D. Turner picks up the phone. Turner had the unfortunate luck of having the same phone number that Keys references in her love song, "Diary," which is currently at No. 3 on the Billboard R&B/ Hip-Hop singles chart.

NTT DoCoMo and 3 : 3G Video Calls

NTT DoCoMo and 3 : 3G Video Calls 01/30/2004 06:05 AM
3G Jan 30 2004 7:43AM GMT

Nintendo Calls for Revolution

Nintendo Calls for Revolution 06/01/2004 02:10 PM
The firm has a working title for its new game console. Will it be revolutionary? (Pardon the pun.)

Campbell calls for BBC admission

Campbell calls for BBC admission 01/29/2004 03:49 AM
Former Downing Street media chief Alastair Campbell calls on the BBC to admit it aired false allegations on the Iraq dossier.

UN Calls for More Outside Help for
Afghanistan (Reuters)

UN Calls for More Outside Help for
Afghanistan (Reuters) 03/24/2005 02:49 PM
Reuters - The Security Council pressed world governments on Thursday to do more to improve security in Afghanistan ahead of parliamentary and provincial elections set for September.

Safety calls after bus tragedy

Safety calls after bus tragedy 09/22/2004 02:31 AM
The mother of a boy killed in a school bus accident calls for more action to ensure school transport safety.

Free calls over internet

Free calls over internet 07/15/2004 07:02 PM
Telegraph Jul 15 2004 11:20PM GMT

India calls for reform of the UN

India calls for reform of the UN 09/23/2004 01:22 PM
India's prime minister calls for urgent reform of the UN Security Council to make it a more effective global voice.

How Do You Make International Calls?

How Do You Make International Calls? 12/31/2004 03:00 PM

VimpelCom Calls in the Cavalry

VimpelCom Calls in the Cavalry 12/31/2004 12:13 PM
It helps to have friends in high places.

Byers calls for pro-EU commitment

Byers calls for pro-EU commitment 05/07/2004 07:22 PM
The government needs to boost its effort to defeat anti-Europeans, former Labour minister Stephen Byers says.

Wiretap law to apply to Net calls

Wiretap law to apply to Net calls 08/05/2004 05:03 AM
Boston Globe Aug 5 2004 8:32AM GMT

3G Video Calls: Who Will Blink First?

3G Video Calls: Who Will Blink First? 01/05/2004 04:12 PM
The Feature Jan 5 2004 2:13PM ET

France calls for help over Darfur

France calls for help over Darfur 08/06/2004 06:27 PM
France's defence minister appeals for greater world involvement to help refugees from Sudan's Darfur region.
Grok Description matches for Net calls to take on landlines
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Net calls to take on landlines

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