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January 03, 2004
Keeping in touch...
Saw this NY Timesthis article on techdirt.com. Its about families keeping in touch via Instant Messaging. How 90's is that?
Its funny, my folks are traveling so much now, that I rarely know what state they are even in. Yahoo Instant Messenger and seeing them online is close enough. Once someone is over 3 hours away, it almost doesn't matter where they are these days. With Instant Messenging, bulk minute cell phones plans and now, VoIP (Voice over IP), it seems like we are more connected than we have been in a long time.
Of course, its all a great big pendulum. Phone's and "reasonable" long distance rates apparently brought by the competition between AT&T, MCI and Sprint renegerized the phone industry in the 80's. The public popularity of the Internet (lets not forget it was a academic/college staple for quite sometime before) in the mid/late 90's brought the ability to circumvent the metered pricing of the long distance carriers in favor of the "under the hood" pricing of peering of their Internet backbones.
Early attempts at voice over dialup connections worked, but were cumbersome and clunky at best. It was worth the higher prices to avoid the hassle, and forget trying to speak with the less technically inclined relatives.
Now in the 21st century, the popularity of broadband (strangely dominated by the Cable companies: at least in my social circles) has enabled higher bandwidth always on connections. And the user interface of choice: the Plain Old Telephone...
The long distance companies are still providing the backbone circuits, the customers are still using their standard telephones, but the Local Phone Companies are losing their place connecting the home with backbones. Right now, I'd say my Cable Company is becoming a more important lifeline to the outside world than my telephone cable. Only the blackout of 2003 and my telephone number have me still hold on to my basic service.
I guess it must be real tough dealing with the grind of dealing directly with customers, but it seems that it is the local phone companies who are out of touch...
Posted by KnipSter at January 3, 2004 11:48 AM
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