Week2- how the internet killed the phone business

In the article, the author claims that VOIP will wipe out traditional telephony. Basically, I do not deny this. Indeed, VOIP is an excellent new technology. As an international student in U.S.A., I usually communicate with the family and Taiwanese friends via Skype. It is very convenient and allows me to save a lot of money, relatively in the traditional telephone; besides, I can see the relatives and friends through using Webcam.

What is worth noticing is that VOIP started to develop since 1990 and became the most important technological change of next stage. However, the number of VOIP users just increase gradually, most consumer behaviors have not changed.

In my opinion, digital divide may be a bar to promote VOIP. Why?
It’s not true that everybody is used to using the computer, and there is very great disparity between persons who can use information technology effectively and those who can’t. Education, culture, social position, and age level may make digital divide. For example, the teenager will accept VOIP easily because they are willing to absorb new information and communicate electronically. On the contrary, housekeepers and some elders couldn’t accept such new technology at once. They find adjusting to new ways a big challenge, and complicated; therefore they object to it.

Also, I think that the factor which actually threatens traditional telephony is the mobile telephone. It not only causes the declining business achievement of traditional telephony but also can’t be replaced by VOIP. In this modern society, because people like pursuing convenient life and the cell-phone will be easy to carry and has high quality, mobile telephone becomes the main tool to communicate. VOIP always accompany with a PC or laptop. It is not portable easily and sometimes its network quality is unstable. In addition, its conversation quality and stability do not reach our expectations.

In the article, it pointed the best example of VOIP –Skype. But I think that it exists the relative block, which means the user must be the customer of Skype. It limits that users must stay at a specific group, so I believe that Skype also lost the chance to strive for mastery with the traditional telephony.

See? Although the impact of VOIP is overwhelming, it still takes a lot of time to kill traditional telephony. To reduce digital divide, to upgrade the quality of VOIP, that will lead VOIP to stand stably and makes it to be accepted generally. I look forward to seeing that day.