Re: GSM Gateway Usage
As a certified "old fart", I remember, when The Phone Company [cue Lily Tomlin] ran things, they promised us that the PicturePhone(tm) would be available soon, thanks to their hard work. And you needed both a local and a long distance carrier (both of whom got a slice of the bill). My last landline phone bill, before I told them to take a walk, was in the $40-$60 per month range, and that's BEFORE any calls.
Now, I have Skype, Ooma and FaceTime. Ooma costs me $15/mo and provides a landline number. Skype and Facetime provide video calling to anywhere in the world for no cost at all.
My family's mobiles (3 of them) cost me $229/mo. For unlimited calling, but there's still the whole data charges thing that needs to get way more reasonable. It will happen, but, as history shows, not quickly.
Now, can you really blame people for using something like a GSM gateway? I feel for the intelligence agencies, but I believe (at least in the US), anything that goes out over the air has a "law enforcement intercept capability" at the switching center. So...you get it before it goes into VOIP. They're tapping everything, everywhere now anyway, so I really don't understand what all the fuss is about.