OT? : Netherlands to switch 100% to VOIP before 2010

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So, put in an alarm system. In reality, this will probably be of limited functionality, since the analog capability will only connect you to the alarm companies.

copper

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I would be surprised if they didn't offer a small VoIP to analog adapter. Just attach the broadband line on one side and your house analog phone system to the other.

Unless they offer something like PoE (power over ethernet) for the VoIP to analog interface, or to support a minimal number of digital handsets for emergency use, you are going to need a battery backup.

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copper

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Well, then good luck to you guys when the electricity croaks. And some day it will. Did your authorities already forget the big flood of 1953? What's the contingency plan when the local router rooms are under 6ft of water?

On a sunny day (Thu, 15 Feb 2007 20:43:25 GMT) it happened Joerg wrote in : I think in the view of all this, and TV over internet etc, better have the PC

Many of the current authorities were born after that date :-)

Swimming lessons, all kids had these.

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copper

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Odd. In the UK telephones have to be able to dial emergency services (999 here though I understand 112 works also) during a power cut. How can that happen with VOIP?

As an aside, mobile (cell) phones here will still dial 999 with no SIM card in them and give the emergency answering services the location of the phone. As I found out when I gave an old phone to my 7 year old daughter to play with.

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Your sure can't beat POTS for reliability.

My oldest son has Vonage VOIP and it sounds like crap.

...Jim Thompson

When they ban on-the-air analog TV in the US, there will be riots in the streets.

And I'll probably be one of the rioters. >:-[

Thanks, Rich

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copper

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Shortly in the UK we'll also be losing the analogue TV and me as a viewer. I currently see the supplied digital channels using a digital decoder box. Picture quality is noticeably poorer than the analogue stuff, particularly on skin tones flat colour surfaces and American imports. Sort of paint it by numbers. Also, the decoder box, it's remote and me, don't get along. The f****** thing has serious software issues. Little worth watching anyway. Mostly shit suitable for a dumbed down audience.

Also had enough of the modern push button tone phones. Damned things glue up in an instant if Coffee goes near and their cheap plastic casings can't take more than a few months daylight before Yellowing and stress cracking results. Am going back to bright Red, BT 746, pulse dialling, real telephones with real bells. Something designed to last for years and years. VOIP forget it.

I'm regressingI know but I'm 'am tired of being fobbed off with the second rate, the inferior, the sub standard and then lectured by some technically illiterate politician that it is good, the way forward, the future. john

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Pulse dialling ceases to work soon in the UK :) It already doesn't work in some areas.

You're right about the picture quality on digital..... until you get a decent reception signal. Then it's ok. Plus, all those useless channels selling plastic jewellery and tupperware weightlifting machines make people think it must be better.

I think the main drive behind it is so the gubment can sell all the released bandwidth to the highest bidders.

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copper

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Ah, that's still way too newfangled. We've got one of these (similar to the one on the left):

Works!

Traditional TV is going to have serious problems, coming from one direction - the Net. First, people like me have pretty much given up watching TV in favour of messing around online. Second, almost anything I might want to watch is online anyway, whether the TV companies like it or not.

Good point. I rarely switch the TV on now. The net is far more entertaining. On the odd occasions when the TV goes on it's like a real novely, almost like going to the cinema. Popcorn and everything.

Despite the theoretical limits on internet speeds the fact is they get faster and faster. We'll have streaming HDTV before long.

C****** b*******, s***, f*** and blast :-(

john

Like a good old episode of "All in The Family". That, plus maybe an old Humphrey Bogart movie and the evening news. Well, part of the news. That's pretty much it for us.

I can already hear the lamentations about all this lost investment into HDTV gear once reality hits and they realize that lots of potential viewers have wandered off. Off to the web, that is. And those are typically the more educated ones, meaning the ones that used to bring in the ad revenue because they've got money. We are seeing the same trend in print media right now. Dwindling subscription and thus dwindling ad revenue. That leads to a smaller newspaper, which in turn leads to...

And if terrestrial digital TV fails which I believe it might here in the foothills that'll put an accelerator onto that process.

No kind of phone exchange will work under 6 ft of water. And except the last mile to the subscriber the phone system is all-digital already. But probably still more reliable than VoIP.

robert

On a sunny day (Thu, 15 Feb 2007 16:25:17 -0700) it happened Jim Thompson wrote in :

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mm, US was a bit later with digital sat TV too :-)

Not sure, most of the telco's networks is already digital. What Tom Jimpson stated here, sounds a bit like when I listened to that mp3 of an old analog recording, and thought: 'mmm analog sounded indeed better'. Oops, had to correct myself.

Yea, I have an other one to normal phones. And I have Skype too for PC2PC.

UK will have to follow, although it is no longer part of theEU I think.... All EU countrioes no exchange finger prints and DNA, xept UK of course. Blair probably afraid he will get arrested. LOL

On a sunny day (Thu, 15 Feb 2007 23:37:41 GMT) it happened Richard The Dreaded Libertarian wrote in :

Well, OK, but I have to inform you the [technical]quality went way up, I get more stations, and I am even receiving cross country as the local one is not online until April I think. And I moved the antenne from outside to inside. So you could be demonstrating _for_ digital. I was sceptical myself, these guys use QAM 64 with a LOT of correction bits bits (some other countries use a simpler system)! My setup is here: ftp://panteltje.com/pub/dvb-t-nl.txt

On a sunny day (15 Feb 2007 15:39:07 -0800) it happened snipped-for-privacy@jjdesigns.fsnet.co.uk wrote in :

Your box must be defective, digital transmission changes nothing in the colors.

Oh well BBC had Ducktales yesterday -the movie- yes I agree.

Well, eh, LOL :-)

And wearing animal skins and a big club?

On a sunny day (Fri, 16 Feb 2007 02:01:29 GMT) it happened Joerg wrote in :

Hoho I watch Formula 1 racing on RTL :-) ITV carries it too.

Yes, sports is a whole different matter. That's a captive audience and the marketing folks know that. Recently I saw a bit of Formula 1 on a digital set. Horrible.