Being an old bell shaped head, I am always fascinated with when the web can touch the PSTN (public service telephone network). Imagine being able to turn a ~4k laptop or desktop into a $9 phone. Great. Ever since Judge Green threw the snowball that started an avalanche! (He decided that the Bell “monopoly” would have to open up. We did have the best phone service in the world, universal service, a dedicated workforce, and Bell Labs. (That was a national treasure!) This was all for the sake of supposedly cheaper phone rates for business. Interesting that I don’t think we have seen the benefits of competition. It’s really not a free market. Now that would be great, if we had gone to a truly free market. Instead, we have a sort of regulated, sort of free, definitely regulated market.
So I’ve been playing with SKYPE. You can skype me at “reinkefj” (I know the name is a real surprise.) You can call me on 732 – 917 – 4816.
SKYPEIN isn’t working. For calls from a phone, it doesn’t “ring” on the laptop, but it will take a message. For calls from a pc, it does work correctly.
Yahoo Instant Messenger With Voice has a similar offering. Again, I’m “reinkefj”, or you can call from 609-489-5893.
Call me if you want to chat or just want to turn my notebook into a nine dollar phone.
Interesting! What the real future of the public telephone network will really be?
Reinke Faces Life 