In article .com,
"rkhalona" wrote:

Telamon asked:

Where do you think the future of telecom is going? Is it going to
be mostly fiber-optic or do you think RF for the last mile to the
home or business?

Do you think Ethernet is winning over ATM?

Anyone who claims to know the answer to your first question will
either become a millionaire quickly or will be surprised by the
changes. There's a war going on over the last mile, as you know.
Right now cable/DSL are predominant, at least in the U.S., but
wireless technologies will eventually push through and will be strong
competitors in this market. Regarding the last question, there is a
strong push for VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol). Most of
wireless traffic is still voice and All-IP system architectures (as
opposed to dual circuit switched/packet switched) are the way of the
future, but there are important Quality of Service (QoS) issues to be
solved regarding voice over IP (esp. end-to-end delay). We should
know more definitively in the near future.

Good answer. I used to think it was just a battle between ATM and
ethernet over wire, then fiber to the home started looking more
promising and now an RF link could end up dominating.

I think BPL broadband over power lines is a real loser but some people
are pursuing that for the "last Mile" or metro area coverage.

Here is a page to keep track of that:
http://www.plexeon.com/

Yeah, quality of service is likely going to go down in the process. That
going to happen if voice traffic uses computer technology like ethernet
instead of the telecom framing technology with all its redundancy, error
correction and intelligent switching not to mention dedicated circuits
or at least time slots in the frames until a call is ended.

Makes me wonder how those voice over IP companies like Lingo or Vonage
are doing these days?

--
Telamon
Ventura, California