Notes: How the Internet Killed the Phone Business

This is fantastic. For some irrational reason, I really dislike paying my phone bill. I don't seem to mind paying for internet access, though.

It looks like this is basically just going to hasten the tranformation of telecoms into data transmission providers. The bill will still come from the same corporations, and for the same ultimate services. I wonder whether VOIP will prove to be stable and of high enough quality for most consumers. It could very well be a backwards step for some time. I need to try this out.

One key point that I take from this article is that disruptive technologies always divide the incumbent players into two groups, the reluctant supporters and the feverishly opposed. It's almost a useful metric to decide whether a technology really IS disruptive -- just check to see if the existing parties start to divide into these camps.