Trucker Tech

Net Neutrality: Consumer Right or Privilege?

What is Net Neutrality?

Simply put, it's the concept that all Internet Traffic should be treated equally. Those promoting Net Neutrality, however, have established three general definitions, as follows:

• Absolute non-discrimination: University of Michigan Law School professor Susan Crawford "believes that a neutral Internet must forward packets on a first-come, first served basis, without regard for quality-of-service considerations."
• Limited discrimination without Quality of Service tiers: Allowing for QoS discrimination as long as no special fee's are charged for higher-quality service.
• Limited discrimination and tiers: Allowing tiered fees; higher fees for higher QoS and lower fees for lower QoS, as long as all get equal access - receiving the QoS level that we each pay for.

Net Neutrality nothing new

The current concept of "Net Neutrality" has its roots in the The Pacific Telegraph Act of 1860 which created a Federal subsidy to build a coast-to-coast telegraph line. Language included within the Act stated:

"messages received from any individual, company, or corporation, or from any telegraph lines connecting with this line at either of its termini, shall be impartially transmitted in the order of their reception, excepting that the dispatches of the government shall have priority ..."

What does this mean to all of us?

On one side of the issue, the side that opposes "Absolute Non-discrimination", sit the major Internet Service Providers, cellular providers and hardware producers. On the other side sit consumer advocates, web-based businesses, and a few technology companies.

Trucker Therapy

I began my Over the Road driving career back in the late '70's. At that time, communication was limited to pay phones and the U.S. Mail. I remember how happy I was when truck stops started putting phones in restaurant booths. Of course, those phones had their own issues; but they were better than nothing.

Communication has always been an issue in the trucking industry. When I dispatched trucks, I always wanted my guys to call as often as possible. That was a pain in the butt for them but, since it was so hard for me to "reach out" to them, it was essential that they call often. Drivers talked to me far more, generally, than they talked to their wives, kids, friends and other family members. I'm a good guy but that ain't the way things should oughta be!

Having experienced trucking when communication was limited, the new technology - cell phones, satellites, email and even video calling - has offered the answers to so many issues. This stuff is the reason my blog exists. Still, even with all of the improvements, maintaining long distance relationships is an issue.

I hadn't really thought about it, before finding out about a web site called "Trucker Therapy", but, even though you may share a home with your spouse, the reality is that you're very likely involved in a long distance relationship. And that goes for your relationships with all your family members; brothers, sisters, mom, dad, etc., not to mention friends and co-workers.

In my estimation, if you can do something to improve the quality of your relationships then you should. Even though the avenues of communication have expanded greatly since the days when I began, the avenues that now exist are not without their issues. The guy's name is Buck Black - and there's a multitude of methods available for communicating with him. Give it a shot.

Making Video Calls with Skype

It's all really sci-fi; isn't it? Remember all those old movies, set in the future, that portrayed characters talking to one another with video? Video phones and cars that didn't need drivers were two of the primary methods old sci-fi movie makers chose to indicate that their movie was set far, far into the future. Well boys and girls, video phone calls are here. In fact, they've been here for quite some time. You still need to drive your own vehicle, that little development is still, thankfully, somewhere down the line, but you can talk to, and see, anyone with a High Speed Internet connection and a webcam, right now.

In case you've not experienced the joy of talking with someone, while simultaneously viewing them, now's your chance to discover just how easy it is. Take a look at "How to: Make Video Calls with Skype", and, for crying out loud, put your shirt and pants on before you make that first call.  

Over the Road Wireless for...the Future, Part 1

Over the last several weeks I've been inundated with articles and blog posts regarding one new wireless technology after another. The nature of these journalistic efforts seem to fall into a couple of categories; they either focus on a new technology as the overarching future that'll squash all competitors or they focus on a technology they pompously proclaim as dead.

Since I don't have a crystal ball I'm not going to make any attempt to predict the future but I thought it might be interesting to pull together some of the things I've been reading and see if we can draw any quasi-conclusions. (Nope, not gonna draw any hard conclusions based on supposition; sorry.)

As you've probably surmised from reading the title, this will be a multi-part post focusing on wireless technology as it relates to those of us living an over-the-road lifestyle. Of course, the impacts that varying wireless technologies have on the general public have to be taken into account since it's the wider population that'll largely determine which technologies will be widely adopted. So let's get to it.

Vonage Planning V-Phone Updates

The very first post on the Trucker Tech blog was focused on the Vonage V-Phone and now, it seems, Vonage is all set to improve the package. If you don't remember the post or you just don't know what the V-Phone is, let me refresh your memory. Vonage, whose marketing seems to be far more focused on home VoIP users rather than mobile users, and whose spent far more time swimming with the sharks (read: fighting legal battles) than developing new products, did come up with the V-Phone that allows users to turn their laptop into a VoIP phone by plugging a dongle device into an available USB port.

More About eValue Talk

A couple of days ago, in response to a request for information that I'd made regarding eValue Talk, I got an email from Flying J Communications and it included some information that I didn't have when I made my first eValue Talk post. For example:

• eValue Talk will be out of Beta and fully released in a couple of weeks.
• The fully released eValue Talk program will be, essentially, identical to the Beta program.

Also included in the email was a bit of information regarding future features that, if they can swing it, might one day be included with eValue Talk. There's no guarantee that these features will show up anytime soon; there's not even a guarantee, as a matter of fact, that they'll show up at all. That being said and understood; here's what they told me they're still working on at the Flying J Communication VoIP labs:

• Video Calls: According to their spokesman, they have "some technical and strategic issues that we are trying to work through but we think it would be neat to teach professional drivers how to video call their families at home."
• Allowing PC-to-PSTN Calls: Meaning that you could call a land-line from your laptop. Again, according to their spokesman, this is something that's "(t)echnically very easy since we already have our switching equipment and we are already certified as a long distance carrier. Strategically it is something we really want to do. The hold up is that the FCC has required E911 to work from VoIP calls and it is physically impossible to do with a mobile hotspot VoIP caller. We have no way to switch the call to the correct local dispatch and provide address information."

So there you have it. As I said in my previous post I think eValue Talk is a great product and I think you should give it a try. Assuming that you do, let me know what you think and, by the same token, if anything new comes up regarding the eValue Talk program, or anything else related to Flying J Communications, I'll let you know.

Avixe Q Internet Phone

And, yes, this thing looks like something out of a Speed Racer cartoon - with a name that leads me to believe that Avixe thinks "Q" would probably build something like it for Bond, James Bond. I don't think so - the Avixe Q is a pretty handy little device that does a lot of stuff but I don't think it can be used to shoot anybody or blow anything up. Hardly something Bond would want.

So, I hear you asking: What the heck is this thing, anyway? Well, the Avixe Q, affectionately known to its designers as the SYS-UC03, is a USB-powered VoIP phone that includes an integrated microphone (with built-in DSP echo-cancellation), 2 Watt stereo speakers, and a webcam for video calls and conferencing. Its kind of an all-in-one package that'll allow even the greenest VoIP novice to join the ranks of Internet video callers. It comes in either black or white (I think I prefer black), features some snazzy looking status LEDs and has a microphone mute button, along with volume controls, conveniently located below the flip-up webcam arm. Unfortunately there's no word on pricing or availability details just yet but I can't imagine this strange looking, but oddly compelling, little device demanding too many pennies. As soon as I know what it costs and when it'll be available; I'll let you know.

Free SkypeOut Calling on Mother's Day

According to an April 30th press release; Skype and Intel are teaming up in an Intel-sponsored event, dubbed "The Gift of Gab", to offer free SkypeOut calls to any land-line or mobile phone this coming Mother's Day, which, if you didn't already know, is Sunday, May 13th. The calls have to originate from the U.S. or Canada but they can terminate to any location in the world. The press release goes on to state that "by offering an Intel-sponsored day of free global calling over Skype on Mother’s Day to U.S. and Canadian consumers, the two companies are encouraging U.S. and Canadian users to take advantage of Internet communication via their PCs or laptops. This builds on the success of the Skype Unlimited Calling plan which has enabled thousands of consumers across the U.S. and Canada to save hundreds of dollars on domestic calling since it was introduced in December 2006."

Intel is sponsoring the event "as a way to demonstrate how audio and video calling are optimized when using PCs powered by the Intel Core 2 Duo processor. For example, Skype conference calls are now clearer and users’ PCs are more responsive during these calls. These improvements are a result of collaborative efforts between Intel and Skype engineers."

If you use a SkypeOut trial to participate in the "Gift of Gab" promotion on Mother's Day, and you discover that Skype does indeed offer a decent VoIP experience, you can sign up for a Skype Unlimited Calling plan at a cost of only $29.95. The plan gives you an entire year of calling to any land-line or mobile phone in the U.S. or Canada. Pretty good deal, eh? If you need a "Gift of Gab" reminder message, along with a little more info, you can sign up here.

eValue Talk

You can say what you want about Flying J. In seemingly equal measure I've been both impressed and infuriated by them. The fuel desks, for example, seem to suffer from infuriatingly inadequate staffing numbers but, on the other hand, the few folks that do work the desk are, impressively, unfailingly friendly and capable.  Since I believe the attitude and abilities displayed by the employees of any organization are a direct reflection of the management and, since the employees I've encountered seem to be both interested in and capable of meeting my momentary needs, I've drawn the conclusion that Flying J has adopted the philosophy of Zig Ziglar: "You can have everything in life that you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want."

Flying J, started by O. Jay Call in 1968, has grown from four gas stations into the largest retail distributor of diesel fuel in North America using a business model known as "Vertical Integration". Vertically integrated companies tend to be very self-sufficient because they produce and control their own supply. Knowing this, I was not at all surprised when Flying J established yet another subsidiary, Flying J Communications, to provide and oversee, among many other things, it's Wi-Fi service. When other truck stop chains, seeking to provide Wi-Fi service for their customers, were partnering with dubious Internet Service Providers like Truckstop.net; Flying J was setting about the business of becoming an ISP unto themselves. By doing so, they were able to control every aspect of their service and thereby avoided every single problem experienced by customers of the "other guys". When the fortunes of Truckstop.net went south Flying J even offered to let those customers use their remaining subscription balance on the Flying J Wi-Fi network.

Now another advantage that Flying J has over the competition has to do with their ability to provide VoIP service. At first glance, eValue Talk doesn't seem to be a big deal because, at least in its current beta-testing form, you can only make PC to PC calls - and then to only two other people. (Its really easy, though, to reassign the two secondary extensions.) It's doubtful that such a limited VoIP service will cause Skype and Vonage to quake in their boots but what you may not realize is that Flying J hotspot users taking advantage of the free eValue Talk service will likely experience higher call quality than truckers making Internet calls through any other VoIP provider.

The reason for this lies within the 802.11e Wi-Fi standard that defines Quality of Service enhancements considered critical for delay-sensitive applications like VoIP. By implementing the 802.11e standard within their Wi-Fi hotspots it's possible for Flying J to identify and give priority treatment to VoIP calls made using their eValue Talk service. They can do this because they're vertically integrated - providing both the Internet and Voice over Internet services. Even if you subscribe to another VoIP provider you should give eValue Talk a try and, if it's not too much trouble, let me know what you think.

VoIP Connection Problems & Testing

I enjoy the cost-saving benefits of using VoIP services like Skype, Yahoo! Messenger, or Google Talk via truck stop hotspots and I've successfully convinced a whole herd of drivers to do the same. It should be noted, though, that not every Wi-Fi Internet connection is of sufficient speed or quality to support VoIP calls. These are the two primary problems:

• Satellite Internet Connection: Communication satellites are located in geostationary orbit more than 22,000 miles above the earth's equator. It takes time, even at 186,000 miles per second, for the signal travel from the truck stop to the satellite and back to the relay station where a hard wired connection to the Internet is made. This delay, known as "latency", has little effect on most Internet related activities but it wreaks havoc on voice communications.
• Slow Upload Speed: Internet connection bandwidth is generally configured to favor download speed. Sending a request for your email or a web page requires very little bandwidth whereas downloading your request might require quite a lot. This bandwidth differential can cause problems when you're attempting to use a truck stop hotspot for VoIP calls because the alloted upload bandwidth might not prove sufficient. Sending upstreaming your voice requires as much bandwidth (or, in my case, more) as down-streaming the voice on the other end.   
  

At any truck stop hotspot you can run a simple bandwidth test, using a service like Speakeasy, to discover download and upload For the most part, as long as the location isn't too busy, you can get a good idea of the bandwidth available. Another testing option, more VoIP specific, is to visit a site like TestYourVoIP.com or VoipReview.org where you can get a fairly accurate idea of whether or not the current connection conditions will support VoIP calls. These sites measure the upload and download speeds but, beyond that, they also measure Quality of Service (QoS) issues like bandwidth jitter and packet dropping. (I'm hoping against hope that, as more and more drivers begin using VoIP services, truck stop hotspot operators incorporate QoS protocols that give priority to streaming technologies like VoIP.)