Supermarket VOIP

chuckT writes "Tesco, the UK's largest supermarket chain, has announced plans to sell a VOIP handset and connection through their stores. Given that one out of every eight pounds, spent on shopping in the UK goes to Tesco, and the UK has one of the highest broadband takeup rates around, is this the end for the classic telecoms providers like BT?"

Imperial March

[Anonymous Coward]

one out of every eight pounds,

Isn't the UK on the metric system? It sounds like Tesco should cut down on the amount of packaging it uses.

I once worked for a mobile cellular company; it had a product called Freedom Link that allowed business to setup an infrastructure that would relay on sight traffic for one mobile device to another. That was squashed a few years ago forcing you to go through their lines and pay the minutes that way. If you knew how simple these devices were, you wouldn't be paying any cell phone bills ever again. If everyone built the wireless router to have frequency hoping characteristics and CDMA tagging then the current cellular structure would fall apart. Everyone could setup a mini mobile switching station and calls would be nearly free for everyone. The only thing that would have to change is a master area frequency delegation computer would have to be setup to control all the frequency hopping but I believe that a really smart device could be built to be self-aware of the spectrum usage.

Can you imagine in 15 years that cellular as we know it could change to something similar that VOIP did to long distance. It is just a matter of time when some young engineering student topples a big portion of the cellular stranglehold.

Phone number replacement needed

[dada21]

I'm a big fan of VoIP (I've moved many friends and family to various companies). I can't wait until there are more programs available to let me use my PDA-bluetooth-tether-cell combo (150kbps download nearly everywhere) to talk without the cell network. I believe T-Mobile will actually help transition their users to VoIP as they build a faster network (and make their money that way).

The big problem I have with VoIP is it still seems to rely on people wanting to contact POTS numbers. When will we see a replacement for the old phone number?

The e-mail address isn't a bad idea, but I honestly don't want to share that with some people. A new number isn't memorable. Names are too generic and duplicated (there are 3 Adam Dada's that I've found in the past 3 years).

What is the solution for the "Follow Me" signature that we can use as our VoIP contact? Is the future settings up 3 or 4 addresses so we can give friends, family and tele-marketters different numbers?

Problems with the VoIP sellers

[Lumpy]

They lock down the hardware so that the market has lots of used VoIP hardware that is 100% useless. I can find gobs of Vonnage SIP phones on ebay for dirt but are locked to Vonnage.

I just wish these companies would be required to be friendlier and unlock the hardware after the "contract" is up.

Cellphone companies do thew same crap. I had to threaten to sue AT&T wireless because they locked my personal phone to their service. I purchased an unlocked phone myself used their service and their scumbag service rep locked my phone. these companies really need to learn what customer service is and that the customer's property needs to be released to them at the end of thwe contract.

Re:Dear GOD!

[handelaar]

It's one eighth of all retail spending.

If you really want to get het up about them consider this: online, they take one pound in every four.

Re:VOIP!

[Jedi Holocron]

I really, to be honest, could care less about 911 calling on VoIP. If 911 is all important, then it should be a governement provided and supported service. 911 should be active on any landline, regardless of whether you have service on the line or now. Simply plug in a phone and you can dial 911. Done. If this were the case, VoIP adapters could have a extra port for connection to a landline jack and route 911 calls to it.

Re:Dear GOD!

[Anonymous Coward]

I live in a rural state, in a city of 60,000... 120,000 including all the small towns that have dried up to the point where everyone drives here to shop.

We have *TWO* walmart superstores. The local paper reported a few months ago that they do 40% of the retail commerce for our area.

Having seen them cause the rapid disappearance of mom-n-pop retail, hell will freeze over before I'll shop at a walmart.

Walmart gets all my money

[gstovall]

Walmart gets pretty much ALL my money spent at retail. And with a family of 6, we spend a lot.

Not saying I'm happy about it, but can't make the paycheck stretch as far anyplace else.

But Newegg gets my computer equipment expenditures...

Re:I hope not

[Anonymous Coward]

A few months back, I think it was in November, Verizon had a major outage in Long Beach, California. I think 10 other cities were affected as well. Something about a major piece of equipment failing... Well anyways no one who had Verizon land lines could make any phone calls to anyone, not even to 911. I live in Long Beach and have Speakeasy naked DSL and VOIP service... I was able to call anyone and everyone even if they had Verizon. Strange situation, but it shows that while VOIP can have problems with emergency situations, so can POTS lines.

Re:Ahh those marketing geniuses!

[Anonymous Coward]

Here in the US we enjoy free local calling. Most places in Europe, UK included, don't enjoy such a luxury.

You are wrong here.

But you do get "free" local calls after you pay $24.99 for your landline. And that's just in a big city. To 'baby Bells' you can pay much much more... A the CHEAPEST landline down South for a friend of mine started at about $50/month; I told that friend to suggest Baby Bells perform an anatomically impossible act on themselves, and get a cell-phone instead.

They screw us over with the cell service in US too. A co-worker of mine is so proud to get 3000 FREE minutes a month... D'oh, dumbass, why wouldn't Cingular give you that after you already pay $80/month for the ability to make roaming calls for $0.49/min...

Plus have you ever tried watching TV lately? 3 mins of show, 5 mins of ads, another 3 mins of show, then again 5 mins of ads. They even add 2 mins of ads at the end of the show, right before the damned credits!!! Even the bloody PBS is starting to have ads now!!!!!

The telecom companies are screwing us over, I tell ya!