telecom's latest development

I read an interesting article today on the New Zealand Herald website about Telecom's latest plans for their consumers and telecommincations. In 2007 Telecom has plans to begin laying down phone lines in homes to enable 'Voice over internet Protocol' (VoiP). This invlolves joining voice, internet, broadband and video into one. Telecom is expecting that by 2012, 80% of the country will be using this form of communication, and regular phone calls will be a thing of the past. What is more, Telecom say it is going to be cheaper, so that means savings for the consumer and at the same time Telecom says they will be saving 60-80% in their operational costs.
Other networks such as Telstra Clear have attempted to lay the building blocks for VoiP, however the cost is to large. So this has caused an uproar over the possible headstart the Government are giving Telecom, who look set at this point to rule the coming of video communication technology to the mass market in New Zealand.
Another interesting point the article makes is on the issue of cell phone costs, and whether they to will drop? The Telecommunications Commissioner recomended that prices should ideally drop from 27cents to 15cents, from land line to cell phone. This is good news for New Zealand if this does develop, as in many other countries, such as America calling rates to and from cell phones is a lot cheaper than here. Some friends of ours were complaining at the 38cent on peak calling rate until they heard the charges we have here. So after the recommendation from the Comissioner above Telecom announced that they will be dropping wholesale rates by 30% over the next four years, if the Government does not step in and regulate them before hand. So New Zealand is beginning to catch up on the rest of the world, lower calling rates, easier telecommincations access are all in the process of coming about. And is VoiP the way of the future? Possibly yes, it is definately a highly developed form of new technology. Will it be popular? Well heres hoping, I have a feeling this sort of attempt has been tried before and has failed miserably? But watch this space, by 2012 maybe this course and the rest of university will be using VoiP and it will be leading the way into phenomenal telecommuncations development in the future.