Allow me to muse on VoIP

I'm calling you out
internet telephony
phone ring of Gyges

I've switched my phone service to Vonage. The phone that isn't a phone (but is a phone).

Voice over IP is cheap, and it works. $15 a month for 500 minutes, or $25 for unlimited minutes. I get voicemail through the phone, a website and email (yes, actual email attachments as wav files that I can put on my iPod, or Garageband the hell out of). Voice without a POTS line. Basically, you plug your normal phone into an adapter, that in turn connects to your cable modem or other pipe.

Too good to be true? Chairman Powell is due to weigh in with some musings of his own. Some courts say VoIP (internet telephony) is an internet service, some say it is a phone service. Maybe it'll get taxed more. Maybe they'll play with E-911 some more. Maybe we'll have to pay into that crooked e-rate program.

Internet connections, email, voicemail and phone service are at a nexus. I'm writing a comment for Seton Hall's Circuit Review Journal on the subject. My question is: how do you "wiretap" packets? The First Circuit had an answer, but just unsent their email opinion. Much more to come...