Voice crypto: the last crypto taboo

[Bill Stewart]

> >> What's up with voice encryption?  I'm ready to use it.  I'm ready to
> >
> >Me, too. Let's do it, then: http://www.speakfreely.org/
>
>And nautilus and PGPfone.  Maybe on a pocket PC if they have
>decent audio.  How do you make money on this approach, though?
>
> >We've got a lack of user base problem. I'm expecting voice encryption in
> >software when PDA (or wearable) with ~10 kBps wireless connectivity become
> >commonplace.

CDPD is available flat rate in much of the country;
not sure if the performance is adequate for voice, though.
(I haven't tried it, but unfortunately I'd guess "not close"...
the throughput is about 19.2 before overhead, ~14+ after,
but there's likely to be way too much jitter and/or latency
because it rides alongside the voice cellular.)

Circuit-switched cellular modems are available, but too slow
for most speech systems, though perhaps the 5.6kbps coders will work.

Metricom, of course, is in the process of biting the dust hard this time.
802.11 networks are starting to emerge rapidly, if the recent
WEP crypto cracks don't kill them off and if they find their own business 
models
(Starbucks wins by having you sit in their stores buying overpriced coffee;
airport-located systems win by charging business travellers money.
Most US-Wandering Cypherpunks who need cryptophones while travelling
are within two blocks of a Starbucks :-)

2.5G GPRS Wireless is available in about half of Seattle,
and should be available much more widely in a year or so,
so depending on the pricing model it might be usable.


The general question of "How do you make money on encrypted IP voice?"
is a subset of "How do you make money on IP voice?",
a hotly contested issue in the market right now.
Wireless companies will be happy to charge by the minute,
and the coffeeshop pricing was mentioned above.