Eddie is, of course, a voice from the past, an old fogey who provokes the relative youngsters to defend more enlightened positions.

WSJ: 'Igby' Is a Darkly Comic Trip

Mr. CLELAND: Well, you really can't project the future from looking at the past because when you start doing voice over technology--and we call it techcom, which is a convergence of technology and telecom--you're really changing from a service to an application.

NPR: Firms Vie to Dominate Messaging Convergence

Point One leases virtually all its capacity, under contracts in which the price of a voice-grade link has plunged in the past 18 months from 5 cents a mile per month to below 2 cents.

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