DirecTV tries satellite VoIP

Satellite TV is great, but any consumer who's gotten his Net connectivity from a dish knows that it's not the fastest thing on wheels. Nonetheless, DirecTV is running a pilot program somewhere in Florida to deliver VoIP service (based on V-Cube's Vistula) to apartment buildings (known in the trade as MDUs) and gated communities. The target market makes sense: clusters of customers are the ones most likely to get picked off by a competing telco or cableco, and a single dish serving a cluster of homes is more attractive than a bunch of south-facing mushrooms sprouting off each unit. But still, it's small-aperture satellite broadband, which is no one's first choice for connectivity.

For more information about DirecTV's VoIP trial:
- read this article from Broadband Reports