Tin cans and string: The ultimate network solution

My father-in-law has gone down to Florida. Now we're going nuts.

 

It happens every year. Highly tech-savvy and often willing to be an early adopter, he has for some time now experimented with Skype and MagicJack. The results have been spotty at best. More often than not I hear my wife calling, “Dad? Dad?” into the receiver as he cuts in and out. Where's the plain old telephone system and its five nines of reliability when you need it? We love him, but we don't love his communications infrastructure.

 

With that in mind, we're planning a Christmas gift with a special message inside, which I've cleverly disguised as an article from ComputerWorld Canada. You tell me if he'll get the hint or not.

 

 

By Shane Schick, ComputerWorld Canada

A Canadian company is hoping to lure customers away from Skype and other low-cost long distance technologies with a product that works without power, without a designated carrier and basically for free.

WeHearYa.com, a provider of enterprise IP telephony solutions based in Toronto, has released 2CanTalk, a dual-mode communications network that the company said could cover any distance, so long as there were no major obstructions between caller and receiver.

Unlike Skype and traditional voice-over-IP (VoIP) services, 2CanTalk is virtual private network connection between a designated pair of people. This vastly increases the strength of the voice connection and allows for much more secure communications.

“If you think you knew how to save money on long distance, you don’t know jack,” said Gabby Yakalot, product marketing manager for WeHearYa.com, making a not-so-subtle swipe at competitor Magic Jack. “We really think 2CanTalk is going to redefine the way we connect to each other.”

An integrated hardware solution, 2CanTalk consists of two aluminum speaker/receivers ran across a single chord, making it lightweight, electricity independent but always “on.”

“With all these other services, people pick up and wonder if there’s actually someone on the other end of the line,” Yakalot said. “In this case they’ll know for sure there’s someone on the other end of the line.”

WeHearYa.com said 2CanTalk is now available in flea markets and garage sales nationally.

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