VoIP getting even easier

Daily Wireless discusses a new NetGear home router product that has voice phone ports built in. NetGear is one of the biggest manufacturers of those cheap WiFi router/hubs that have been selling like hotcakes.

What's important about this is that it reduces the box count (and thereby the complexity) of the network in our homes and small offices. Stuff this like must strike fear into the hearts of the telcos; expect that two years from now, virtually every home router/hub will have phone jacks built in. Homeowners will be able to switch their entire set of home phones by simply unplugging the jack in the NIU (Network Interface Unit--the grey box on the side of your house) and simply plugging that wire into this NetGear box.

So we now have a sub-$100 box that provides broadband data and voice telephony. What's next? In a couple of years, we'll have the same kind of box with a coax connector on it to distribute television programming throughout the home.