From: Arun Mehta <amehta@giasdl01.vsnl.net.in>
Date: Mon, 5 Aug 1996 03:58:44 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Internet telephony (was Freeh slimes again)
Message-ID: <1.5.4.32.19960804173946.003173d8@giasdl01.vsnl.net.in>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 13:11 02/08/96 -0700, Lucky Green wrote:
>The sound quality really isn't there, unless you have a fast machine or a
>fat pipe. In addition, the vast majority of Intel based computers lack the
>crucial (for user acceptance) full-duplex soundcard. Add to that the
>physical impossibility of getting decent real time services over a
>non-isochronous network, such as the Internet, I'net phones just don't
>provide suffcient speech quality for business/serious personal use even
>without the added overhead of crypto.

What I'd like to see -- for which technology is all in place, and
none of the shortcomings you mention apply -- is voice mail that
functions seamlessly between people who only have a phone, and
those with Internet connections on computers with a sound card.
Many companies practically use voice mail as an alternative to
long phone conversations. This might also help the Internet
spread, because with a connection you would be able to save  on
long-distance charges -- and strong crypto could be used.

I'm sure the software for this exists too -- the ISPs only have
to run it on their servers. It would be nice, though, if the ISPs
had a facility that when there is a voice message for you, it
either phones or pages you...
Arun Mehta Phone +91-11-6841172, 6849103 amehta@cpsr.org
http://www.cerfnet.com/~amehta/  finger amehta@cerfnet.com for public key