John Todd wrote:
IP is a far better method for real-time, though SMS does have a higher reliability for more "sketchy" geography or coverage areas, by nature of its store-and-forward abilities. One must consider the usefulness of a large belch of store-and-forward messages upon coverage restoration, so even this becomes less useful as your edge cases get more grey.
I think it seems like a safe bet that network build-out for data service will get more dense and penetrate into more areas as time goes on, which will make SMS even less useful and relevant. I think the incumbents know this, just like they know this about the rest of the cornucopia of "legacy" technologies they actively sell and market. It's just that unlike upstart competitive carriers and ITSPs betting on "disruptive" technologies, they have both CAPEX and revenue streams in things like SMS to protect. Squeezing every bit of ROI from something that's a sunk cost up until the very point of diminishing returns is just good business. A colleague of mine observed the misguided irony of CLECs and ITSPs that bash the RBOCs for continuing to push T1s, frame relay, and stuff like that. It's not that these guys are inept and "didn't get the memo" on advanced VoIP. It's just no aspect of their business model or M.O. to experiment in emerging markets where the uptake curve is still incipient to some degree, except in rather limited ways. They wait for dozens of companies like all of ours to fight it out, figure out which business model actually works, wait for the technology and economics to get more mature, subscriber density and penetration to increase, and then acquire or duplicate what's left standing on a very large scale, much as they did with dialup Internet access. That was supposed to be the "death of the telco," right? And what are your Internet access options now? Next-generation voice application providers and operators mostly have $0/mo coming from a century's worth of copper buildout and other plant investment, so of course they're going to be looking forward and selling whatever they think the next big thing. But the RBOCs/ILECs are in a very different position; they've got revenue streams to protect. -- Alex -- Alex Balashov Evariste Systems Web : http://www.evaristesys.com/ Tel : (+1) (678) 954-0670 Direct : (+1) (678) 954-0671 Mobile : (+1) (678) 237-1775