I think it COULD happen, but it's a looooooonnnnnggggg way off.

All of the broadcast networks would just evaporate overnight? Advertisers would stop paying broadcast networks?

I believe there are about 2 televisions for every person in the USA. That's 600,000,000 TV sets that would have to be thrown away.

Not everybody owns a computer. Not everybody wants to.

Not everybody that does have a computer has a broadband connection. Some can't even get one if they want to.

Not everybody likes to watch television programs and movies on a computer screen. Some people actually hook up their computers TO their TV sets.

I won't even get started on the telephone.

My guess is that the internet replacing TV and telephone is at least 25 years away, if it happens at all. And in that time, who's to say something won't come along that will replace the internet?

All the best,
Michael

NO WAY! To replace television, I STILL say you need FAR more bandwidth. A MAJOR carrier was BRAGGING relatively recently about having 6Tbps connections across a swath of the US. It would cover connections like from NY to LA. Coincidence? Probably not. Anyway, if the channels are DEDICATED, they may want over 500. If the channels AREN'T dedicated, it could be far higher. That 6Tbps is for the LUCKIEST in the US on that network. I won't say who it is, but this affects iphone users! BTW an article this MONTH says that provider is having BANDWIDTH problems because of the iphone! I forget the magazine that article is in, BUT....

http://www.cultofmac.com/att-promise...ne-users/23151
http://www.9to5mac.com/11923-iPhone-data-hogs
http://www.pcworld.com/article/18458...d_pricing.html
http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/20...-att-happy.ars
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles..._airwaves.html

And MOST protocols today seem to have buffering problems, etc....

And WHERE would we be without telephones? IMAGINE!

NO POTS!
NO CORDLESS
NO CELL PHONES
NO INTERNET

And without internet, how could the internet provide anything!?!?!?

A lot of people don't realize it, but here is a quick summary of what happened...

1. The phone was developed, and they needed to connect them up. SO, they created a centralized infrastructure to control them. The PHONELINES were born.
2. Some companies wanted to communicate long distance, so they got "dedicated PHONELINES" from the phonecompany. That was long, drawn out, expensive, and slow but, once done, it worked great.
3. They came up with sattelite phones, but they were EXPENSIVE and limited.
4. They came up with cordless phones that due to power, FCC law, etc... had a limited range, and they connected eventually to PHONELINES.
5. They came up with a new phone, the cell phone, that connected to a cell connected to PHONELINES!
6. Eventually, companies were able to lease trunklines, which were basically the basis for PHONELINES, and they could send signals over them.
7. When networks came out, eventually they used the trunklines(AKA PHONELINES).

If the phone network were disabled, almost all internet communications would STOP! If you use ISDN, DSL, trunk lines(used to be prefixed only with T as in T1, T3, etc... NOW ALSO with OC like OC3, OC12), EVDO, etc... Probably almost ALL WIFI, etc... YOU would be affected! Think of it, amazon, google, etc... would probably come to a screaching halt.

Besides, I HATE talking to people on the phone, but sometime it is NECESSARY!

ALSO, a lot of the PHONELINES are still limited as to the speed they can handle. Just try to get a DSL line. You may be told you are too far from a switch, WAIT!

Steve

Not telephone, but maybe television.

Unless you can somehow call 911 from skype, I don't think phones are going anywhere.

The internet already offers movie and tv on demand.

what is needed is for someone to make an actual internet appliance that is just a television with modem and a way to easily change 'channels' between places like hulu, myspace and facebook.

there has always been talk of a one-stop box for the home. a unit that handles tv, phone, internet, gaming all in one spot

At one time there was a guy with a mythical piece of hardware here in florida call the Phantom or something like that. It did it all but ended up being vaporware the last time i heard anythign about it which has been a couple years.

You're comparing the wrong technologies.

Television and telephones ALREADY communicate largely via IP networking, and therefore could easily operate over the public internet.

What you're really suggesting is that people will prefer to use the computer instead of a television or a phone.

Trouble is, a computer is more expensive and requires more maintenance than either a television or a telephone - both of which can pretty much be plugged in and relied upon to work forever.

So no, not going to replace either of them. Not until TRUE plug-and-play is a reality.

If you use an IP based phone, realize that YOU have to update location. Cell phones have GPS and/or cell towers to get your position. Hardwired and cordless are fixed. IP could be anywhere. Apparently, there can be fees for non compliance(I did some work for a company to handle E911 What is E911? - A Word Definition From the Webopedia Computer Dictionary ), so some companies may simply say DON'T use it for that.

Steve

host identifier is going to tell the system when the user moves.

geolocation is usually 'built in' to an isp's dhcp service. and geolocation software would be an easy addition to any machine. dell's have geolocation software already built into them so if the machine gets stolen as soon as it connects to the internet it reports its location.

Internet will never replace TV. Unless that is, everyone can watch whatever show they want with no lags. Even if that happened, most ppl will still prefer TV cause the screen is bigger and easier to see and the whole family can watch instead of everyone huddling by a computer screen. And of course there will be all the ads taking up room to replace commercials.