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Have you wondered at the
claims in ads for low cost, or FREE, long dis-tance calling plans? Have
you felt the urge to yank the telephone line for the freedom of your
cell phone? Do you long to chat out loud with on-line contacts?
At our next General Meeting on Wednesday, April 13, 2005 (note the
date), Bob Hughes, IBM Program Manager for Voice Network Strategy will
be on hand to discuss the benefits of VoIP as well as the technology
that drives it.
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is the process of converting spoken
words into the packets of digital information that are routed over the
Internet. Once arriving at their destination, these packets are
reassembled and converted back into spoken text. At the speed of
transmission available on the Web, the result is close to or equal to
normal phone communication.
VoIP has become widely popular among Internet users, with companies like
AT&T and Yahoo offering connection services. Skype, after only one year
a leader in free Internet telephony, recently announced its 1,000,000th
user of SkypeOut, its premium service offering global calling to PSTN
numbers for local rates. PSTN (public switched telephone network) is the
nuspeak equivalent for “Plain Old Telephone Service” (POTS).
The meeting is held at the Danbury Hospital Auditorium and is open to
the public. The program begins at 6:30 p.m. with registration and casual
networking followed by Random Access (our open Q&A period) at 7:00 p.m..
The feature presentation begins at 8:00 p.m.
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