This is a fantastic thread!!!! I'm an old time telephone guy who has learned and is constantly learning the VOIP side of the industry. First of all let me say that I believe there will be a need for us telephony types for a very long while yet. BUT, the industry of communications is still undergoing change, and that is nothing new. From the days when crossbar switching took over from step offices and then gave way to ESS Switching to todays evolution to VOIP.

In 1977 I sat in a conference room in Basking Ridge, New Jersey and listened to a guy named Arch Mcgill (THE architect of divestiture) talk about the worlds of telephone and data going through something then called convergence. Since that meeting I have watched this as it has unfolded and I am excited and thrilled to have been a part of that and to continue to be a part of it.

Our little midwest company started doing Voice over Frame Relay when MCI said that they would NEVER support THAT technology!! Then,, 11 years ago we began communicating with our branch offices using VOIP provided through the use of Multitech VOIP boxes. Today we sell and maintain BOTH "legacy" PBX's AND VOIP Systems.

I have a lot more that I'd like to say about our converging industries, but I have already gone on for far too long. I'll finish by saying, there is room for ALL of us and a LOT we each lear about the others world, it's exciting!!!