[VoiceOps] Future of the Traditional PSTN vs VOIP and VoLTE

[Pete E]

Haha, that was a fun read! (and pretty accurate)



>>
> Technically, ILECs publish a lot of stuff publicly, to comply with the
> letter of regulations requiring them to do so. However, most of it is not
> digestible or usable to those who work outside the world of ILEC
> provisioning, so it has to be processed into commercial databases like the
> LERG and LCADS. The same mafia then charges for access to these, for
> reasons motivated by profit and creating systemic barriers to entry for
> small competitors.
>
> If anyone balks at the seemingly surreal cocktail of having to sell one's
> kidney for access to notionally public information, the ILECs can always
> say: "You can download the 90 page local tariff yourself right there from
> our web site, you just have to know where to look! The commercial databases
> are just adding value by composing it into readily machine-processable
> form!"
>
> This is one of the most common cop-outs of New Gilded Age sociopaths;
> "we're complying with the letter of the law, and we reserve the right to
> charge a reasonable fee for putting the information into a convenient form
> for you..." Except, there wouldn't be a need to take 90 pages of arcane
> prose and turn it into a few table rows of values if they did not
> themselves dictate the rules; there is no "value add" in the LERG because
> it is a response to a artificial contrivance, a purely invented problem of
> the ILECs' own deliberate making. It exploits information asymmetries and
> differences of power between big and small actors in the same way as
> pseudoscientific chemistry gibberish on early 20th century quack remedies,
> or the fine print on 264-page subprime mortgage issuance binders.
>
> I think that's really the essence of Erik's grievance, and it's a valid
> one. Sure, you can participate in the PSTN*.
>
> * Expensive semi-proprietary decoder ring and beaucoup bucks required.
>
> -- Alex
>
>
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