Andy asks whether the newly announced Verizon One, an integrated modem, router and cordless phone is a VoIP phone. Any mention of VoIP is conspicuously missing in their press release; but they say that it is configured for their iobi service which is associated with PSTN line. So I strongly suspect that it is not a VoIP phone, but a standard PSTN phone.
I chuckled when I read their CIO claim, “It allows our customers to tap the intelligence of our network in ways never before thought possible.” First of all, the CIO is proudly proclaiming that the network is intelligent, countering the “rise of the stupid network”. Second they are repeating the phrase that has become standard by now – “in ways never before thought possible”. Except they were possible from mid-80s and they themselves were/are offering these. I suppose that that is why I don’t write press releases.
Posted by aswath at January 21, 2005 01:09 PM
I was very peripherally involved in the Verizon One project when I was at Verizon. It's a PSTN phone. I'm sure you could plug it into an ATA, including the one supplied with Verizon Voicewing, but then you would be able to use it only as a regular phone and wouldn't benefit from the other features. iobi is, as you say, a PSTN service.
Posted by: Dan Ryan at January 23, 2005 03:04 AMI suspect that Verizon One has only one line coming out bundling the voice and data portions bundled. I feel this way because the DSL modem is builtin. If that is the case, then you can not plug VO into an ATA, which in turn needs to be plugged into VO. Also one neds a splitter to split the voice and data portion of the DSL line.
Posted by: Aswath at January 24, 2005 05:22 AMMaybe I was trying to draw too fine a distinction. Plugging Verizon One into an ATA would give you a working cordless telephone, but the DSL router/modem/iobi would all, I think, fail. That would be a rather expensive cordless deskset.
I don't know if there is one line or two (which is to say - is the splitter in the phone or does one use a traditional splitter?). If the former, then I think you could probably use all the features except the iobi.
Posted by: Dan Ryan at January 25, 2005 12:12 AM