Microsoft continues to incorporate previously
independent applications in its browsers - a behaviour which
led to the 1999 anti-trust lawsuit against it.
The internet will do to phone calls what it has done to mail.
Already there are applications (Intel's, Vocaltec's,
Net2Phone) which enable the user to conduct a phone
conversation through his computer. The voice quality has
improved. The discussants can cut into each others words,
argue and listen to tonal nuances. Today, the parties (two or
more) engaging in the conversation must possess the same
software and the same (computer) hardware. In the very near
future, computer-to-regular phone applications will eliminate
this requirement. And, again, simultaneous multi-modality: the
user can talk over the phone, see his party, send e-mail,
receive messages and transfer documents - without obstructing
the flow of the conversation.
The cost of transferring voice will become so negligible that
free voice traffic is conceivable in 3-5 years. Data traffic
will overtake voice traffic by a wide margin.
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