A new way of parental control
-
I definitely do not think that those numbers are public. Nor, in some cases, are things like "is it Android". And how do you know every manufacturer to contact? This seems like it is asking a bunch of disconnected people both their opinion on sales numbers as well as their subjective numbers as to what is or isn't a phone. Layers of subjectivity and opinion. I'm not saying that an iPad Mini with 4G is or isn't a phone, but legally it is a phone (it makes phone calls and has a phone number) and most people don't consider it one and I can make calls from a desktop device so the ability for people to have "close enough" definitions of what is or isn't a phone is nearly gone today.
What about a pager, is that a phone? What about a Blackberry that only gets email?
-
@scottalanmiller said:
most people don't consider it one and I can make calls from a desktop device so the ability for people to have "close enough" definitions of what is or isn't a phone is nearly gone today.
I really wonder when the PSTN will go away and we'll have only IP based technologies handling these things?
-
@Dashrender said:
@scottalanmiller said:
most people don't consider it one and I can make calls from a desktop device so the ability for people to have "close enough" definitions of what is or isn't a phone is nearly gone today.
I really wonder when the PSTN will go away and we'll have only IP based technologies handling these things?
The US will be one of the last places clinging to PSTN, I have zero doubts about that.
-
@Dashrender said:
@scottalanmiller said:
most people don't consider it one and I can make calls from a desktop device so the ability for people to have "close enough" definitions of what is or isn't a phone is nearly gone today.
I really wonder when the PSTN will go away and we'll have only IP based technologies handling these things?
The PSTN will almost never go away. However, the IP world will handle most calls. That world is nearly upon us. The PSTN is rapidly being bypassed in more and more of the world. The US and SubSaharan Africa where they rely on SMS instead of IP for messaging will be the last holdouts of the old world, IMHO. There are whole countries that have effectively left the PSTN already.
-
@scottalanmiller said:
There are whole countries that have effectively left the PSTN already.
Any western nations?
-
@Dashrender said:
@scottalanmiller said:
There are whole countries that have effectively left the PSTN already.
Any western nations?
Panama and Nicarauga, for example, basely use it. They use Skype, WhatsApp and similar because they are small countries mostly calling internationally and don't want to pay PSTN fees and have ubiquitous, stable Internet access.
I can't believe that Qatar uses it, insane to me.
-
@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
@scottalanmiller said:
There are whole countries that have effectively left the PSTN already.
Any western nations?
Panama and Nicarauga, for example, basely use it. They use Skype, WhatsApp and similar because they are small countries mostly calling internationally and don't want to pay PSTN fees and have ubiquitous, stable Internet access.
I can't believe that Qatar uses it, insane to me.
Ok, but those aren't western nations. Other than Qatar (not sure on it's status) the rest are considered 3rd world.
-
@Dashrender said:
Ok, but those aren't western nations. Other than Qatar (not sure on it's status) the rest are considered 3rd world.
Um....
They are as western and western gets. They are western culture. They are western location. Can't really be less western. Are you thinking western means something very different than it does? First world and western have no relationship.
Panama is first world, it's a US colony.
Nicaragua is western and second world, not third.
-
We joke about Nicaragura being in the third world, but it's just a joke. They are very much part of the second world Russia / Cuba block.
-
OK I stand corrected, who in the first world is really ready to leave PSTN behind? I know my office isn't ready to handle something like that.
And while many of users (and friends) use all different kinds of IM/VOIP clients, most all of them still use the PSTN a lot.
-
@Dashrender said:
OK I stand corrected, who in the first world is really ready to leave PSTN behind? I know my office isn't ready to handle something like that.
Well, Panama
-
@Dashrender said:
And while many of users (and friends) use all different kinds of IM/VOIP clients, most all of them still use the PSTN a lot.
That's what is starting to change is that lots of countries, mostly smaller ones where calls need to go outside of their own country, are so heavily punished by PSTN fees that they are rapidly transitioning.
-
i think the big thing that needs to happen is businesses finding a way to communicate via voice other than PSTN.
It seems like the VHS Betamax wars. There really needs to be only one. You can't have two competing solutions in this space - people don't want to be forced to have two clients where ever they go so they can communicate.
-
I would not be surprised if Europe began to make the move just because they tend to be progressive and technical. But they don't have the financial pressures causing them to switch - except that unlike the US they are not insular and IP is how they talk to the rest of the world.
-
How does the US talk to the rest of the world?
I know that I've used a dozen different chat/VOIP programs over the years to talk to locals as well as those all over the world. I don't think the younger generations are holding the US back.
-
-
@Dashrender said:
I don't think the younger generations are holding the US back.
Yes and no. They can afford to be connected to the PSTN and use it when it is convenient.
-
@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
I don't think the younger generations are holding the US back.
Yes and no. They can afford to be connected to the PSTN and use it when it is convenient.
I'm not sure I'd say when it is convenient. SMS OK sure. They use that because it's ubiquitous in the USA, but phone calls? nah - they use it often because SMS or other chat protocols aren't available, i.e. calling businesses. Perhaps NTG has a non PSTN communication method published, but I don't recall seeing another business ever have something like Skype listed.
I'm not even sure how that would work? Can you have a Skype call go to a receptionist, who can then transfer it to someone else? And I mean a purely Skype to Skype call, no PSTN involvement.
-
@Dashrender said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
I don't think the younger generations are holding the US back.
Yes and no. They can afford to be connected to the PSTN and use it when it is convenient.
I'm not sure I'd say when it is convenient. SMS OK sure. They use that because it's ubiquitous in the USA, but phone calls? nah - they use it often because SMS or other chat protocols aren't available, i.e. calling businesses. Perhaps NTG has a non PSTN communication method published, but I don't recall seeing another business ever have something like Skype listed.
I'm not even sure how that would work? Can you have a Skype call go to a receptionist, who can then transfer it to someone else? And I mean a purely Skype to Skype call, no PSTN involvement.
This is funny because the roles are reversed. For years I kept saying that Skype was awful and we shouldn't have it and I kept getting berated because "all of our customers use it." It's actually extremely common. I've since worked for companies with hundreds of staffers using nothing but Skype for calling and only having PSTN for special teams like legal.
-
@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
I don't think the younger generations are holding the US back.
Yes and no. They can afford to be connected to the PSTN and use it when it is convenient.
I'm not sure I'd say when it is convenient. SMS OK sure. They use that because it's ubiquitous in the USA, but phone calls? nah - they use it often because SMS or other chat protocols aren't available, i.e. calling businesses. Perhaps NTG has a non PSTN communication method published, but I don't recall seeing another business ever have something like Skype listed.
I'm not even sure how that would work? Can you have a Skype call go to a receptionist, who can then transfer it to someone else? And I mean a purely Skype to Skype call, no PSTN involvement.
This is funny because the roles are reversed. For years I kept saying that Skype was awful and we shouldn't have it and I kept getting berated because "all of our customers use it." It's actually extremely common. I've since worked for companies with hundreds of staffers using nothing but Skype for calling and only having PSTN for special teams like legal.
But are they using Skype for calling each other, or calling outside companies? in the cases of outside companies, are they using Skype's PSTN connection?
