online rehearsals

The idea of rehearsing online - when the alternatives are too costly, inconvenient or otherwise - has been on the cards for sometime. The main issue is...time. Or rather, delay or latency. How can players from around the world play together when they don't recieve information at the same time? I hear you playing through my speakers and I play along. But then what do you hear? You most certainly don't hear me playing at the same time as you. Well, everything takes time... but is that an insurmountable problem? Isn't delay inevitable even if we are in the same room? Well, I don't think players or audience complain too much about all of this if they are in the same room? It doesn't tend to be a noticeable problem. I guess the speed of sound is acceptable to us. But when we communciate via the internet, there is more to it than the speed of sound.