Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Remarkably little has been written about the social and spatial consequences of
Skype. Anecdotal evidence suggests that like mobile phones, it is popular among
immigrants, who use it to stay in touch with their home countries. Migrants from
Eastern Europe now living in the U.K., for example, use it extensively (Metykova
2010
). In Australia, Skype has become popular among rural households, for whom it
is a ready antidote to the loneliness and isolation of the outback, and has increased
the volume and quality (with video) of long-distance ties (Richard
2009
).
Arguably the biggest impact of internet telephony is on the telecommunications
industry. VOIP is such a ''disruptive technology'' in the Schumpeterian sense
(Rao et al.
2006
) that it threatens to reduce the costs of telephone traffic to zero, in
the process assassinating the pricing models based on distance and duration of
calls and forcing providers to offer flat-rate billing plans. (Critics reply that
because VOIP piggy-backs on existing networks, it is a parasitic, not disruptive,
technology). Because voice traffic represents roughly three-quarters of telecom-
munications industry profits, the reduction in prices to nearly zero poses an
extremely serious challenge to firms in the trillion-dollar market (''VOIPoca-
lypse''). Telecommunications companies have responded to the VOIP challenge in
different ways, including lowering prices to reduce the attractiveness of the new
medium, attempting to gain market share in the VOIP market (e.g., Google Voice),
fomenting fears about the security of voice traffic over unsecured internet lines, or
by merging voice and data traffic and charging by the number of megabytes
transmitted (Wortham
2011
). Others have been forced to cannibalize their reve-
nues from the public switched network. Some governments have banned or pro-
pose to ban VOIP in an attempt to protect their incumbent telecommunications
providers, including China, India, Myanmar/Burma, Egypt, and Lebanon.
However, The Economist concluded, ''It is now no longer a question of whether
VOIP will wipe out traditional telephony, but a question of how quickly it will do so.''
4.6 E-tailing, Tourism, Distance Learning, and Internet
Gambling
E-commerce extends far beyond banking, finance and back offices. It has
restructured how firms do business. One important version of ecommerce concerns
electronic data interchange (EDI) systems, which are generally used in business-
to-business (B2B) contacts. Common uses of EDI include relatively cheap
advertising; online product catalogues; the sharing of sales and inventory data;
submissions of purchase orders, contracts, invoices, payments, and delivery
schedules; product updates; and labor recruitment. E-commerce reduces delays
and marketing and delivery costs, improves supply chain management, and has led
to a greater emphasis on connectivity, ideas, creativity, speed, and customer
service. In insurance, e-commerce has streamlined underwriting policies, and
centralized database management systems. Electronic advertising is relatively
