Comment Re:Real Time Communication And The Net (Score 1) 103
Very doubtful that communications infrastructures will run 'side-by-side' imho.
Telcos are for-profit companies and are desperate to make money just like everyone else.
Consider where their major costs lie. The costs of having physical media (fibre, copper, etc) running across the country and down the street and up the buildings far outweighs any other cost for any type of remote communication - including development, end-devices etc.
Any communication methods that can share that most expensive resource (the circuit/line) will be priced accordingly and therefore be more popular. This is true inside the PSTN, POTS networks' histories and will continue accordingly. "Internet" technology is the most efficient way to share these lines so far so people will coninute to try to make other applications "fit" this cheaper transport type - same as digitized sound is actually only an approximation of true sound waves but since we simple humans can store/replay digitized sound so much better, we use it.
Telcos are for-profit companies and are desperate to make money just like everyone else.
Consider where their major costs lie. The costs of having physical media (fibre, copper, etc) running across the country and down the street and up the buildings far outweighs any other cost for any type of remote communication - including development, end-devices etc.
Any communication methods that can share that most expensive resource (the circuit/line) will be priced accordingly and therefore be more popular. This is true inside the PSTN, POTS networks' histories and will continue accordingly. "Internet" technology is the most efficient way to share these lines so far so people will coninute to try to make other applications "fit" this cheaper transport type - same as digitized sound is actually only an approximation of true sound waves but since we simple humans can store/replay digitized sound so much better, we use it.
