[82524] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: You're all over thinking this (was: Re: Vonage
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Brad Knowles)
Wed Jul 20 22:09:50 2005
In-Reply-To: <20050720150327.M79704@sprockets.gibbard.org>
Date: Thu, 21 Jul 2005 03:46:48 +0200
To: NANOG <nanog@merit.edu>
From: Brad Knowles <brad@stop.mail-abuse.org>
Errors-To: owner-nanog@merit.edu
At 4:19 PM -0700 2005-07-20, Steve Gibbard wrote:
> At some point it makes sense to solve the problems you can solve, rather
> than inventing new ones.
True enough. However, the tough problems are always the ones you
never thought of before you started building the system. Therefore,
it helps to try to come up with as many scenarios as you can, and try
to find the various weaknesses in the system. You might decide to
not try to do anything to fix them, but you should at least be aware
of them.
For example, one example came to me tonight -- get a CDMA mobile
phone with EV-DO and a flat-rate subscription, then run a SIP/VOIP
softphone over that. Yes, the cost of the EV-DO flat rate is high,
but a few short duration long distance calls per month could very
easily exceed the monthly rate you'd pay. And in times of trouble,
people frequently grab the device they're most familiar with, and not
necessarily the right one for the job at hand.
In the case of regular cell phones, if you are roaming on a
network in a foreign country, or you have rented a local phone, I
understand that the carriers have gotten together and made sure that
the various 911/112/999 emergency services numbers work world-wide,
so that if you're an American in Europe, you can still call 911 and
have that work as expected.
But in the case of the EV-DO softphone, things get nastier. And
I can see companies deciding to go with a dedicated EV-DO softphone,
to save on overall expenses.
--
Brad Knowles, <brad@stop.mail-abuse.org>
"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little
temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
-- Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), reply of the Pennsylvania
Assembly to the Governor, November 11, 1755
SAGE member since 1995. See <http://www.sage.org/> for more info.
