On Fri, 14 Jan 2005, Ben Bargabus wrote: > I'm assuming that there always has to be a provider involved at some > point in this process to interface with POTS users and to provide the > routing to a phone number for incoming calls, is that true? It would be > neat if I could ditch phone providers all together and set up my own own > all IP based system but I'm guessing that's out of the question at this > point. Well, you *could* go all IP, but then you wouldn't be able to talk to the PSTN at all. :) (Yes, you need a provider to interface VoIP<->PSTN. That will always be the case, although it wouldn't surprise me if in the future some of the large telcos offered direct VoIP connections.) -- Nate Carlson <natecars at real-time.com> | Phone : (952)943-8700 http://www.real-time.com | Fax : (952)943-8500 _______________________________________________ TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota Help beta test TCLUG's potential new home: http://plone.mn-linux.org Got pictures for TCLUG? Beta test http://plone.mn-linux.org/gallery tclug-list at mn-linux.org https://mailman.real-time.com/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list