DTV madness to be trumped by “all-IP phone transition”

Oh god, I can see it now — madness in the streets when when the FCC publicly announces a plan to move over the entire countries ancient switch based phone network to an all IP network model. If you thought you had seen confusion and the highest amount of confusion spewed forth, boy are you in for a treat. It will inevitably happen though. In the U.S., telephone providers have been trying in recent years to move people over to VoIP services with AT&T being amongst the top in this area. Still, the fact that the DTV transition took until 2009 and suffered a several set backs can only mean a larger structured move — exactly the type of thing we’ll probably see from a switch-to-VoIP phone system move — will take some time.

Physical talking will always have a place in society (until telepathy becomes mass produced), but with more and more people picking up text based communication methods such as text, IM, and email, how much longer will voice even be relevant? I was all for the DTV transition as it benefited me as well as many others. A major VoIP transition would still benefit many people, but seeing as how I outright despise talking on the phone, I’m just not feeling this one.

Ars Technica