Latency SLAs are what’s missing: “No packets shall be lost, and latency shall not fluctuate”. Classical phone lines worked so well because there is never laten

Latency SLAs are what’s missing: “No packets shall be lost, and latency shall not fluctuate”. Classical phone lines worked so well because there is never latency. You might get static, but we’re adapted for listening through static. But you never get timing disruptions. Videoconferencing is a black art of trying to smooth over tiny latencies that the human brain is wired to be extraordinarily sensitive to. People read too much into a single lost packet. This same problem applies to VR - if the latency is not rigorously consistent, people vomit. It is possible to design a network that connects two people reliably and with predictable latency - last century’s landline phone network stands as proof. Until someone builds a network that offers the same level of service for videoconferencing, it will continue to be a tool of last resort.