10 Reasons why VoIP has succeeded
10. The Internet
The fast development of the internet has been one of the main contributors to the rapid diffusion of concepts like Voice over IP. Except for small and elected environments, no one was discussing on VoIP, unless on the Internet. Have you ever heard of VoIP from the TV news ? No, you haven't. Only Internet has really helped to "spread the word".
9. SIP
Once upon a time there was H323. But H323 hadn't the requirements to lead VoIP to success. SIP, instead, took the best from the HTTP approach, quickly becoming the most diffused protocol for transmitting voice and Video over IP. Without SIP and the great work around it (thanks to people like Henry Sinnreich, considered the "Godfather" of SIP), VoIP wouldn't have been where it is now.
8. G723, G729
Through those audio codecs, people could take advantage of VoIP even from low bandwith connections and understand how VoIP was cool. Till now, G729 is the most used codec by telecom operators.
7. Competition
What about becoming a telecom operator ? With VoIP, everything is easier. Now you can become an ITSP in a few hours if you want. As soon as someone realized that VoIP could facilitate the entrance of many new players in the market, encouraging competition, many companies started a VoIP business. This led to a big push from newly created providers towards end users.
6. Vocaltec
No technology can exist without an innovator. Vocaltec released the first Internet Phone during 1995-1996. If Vocaltec wouldn't have been there, someone had to invent it. Unfortunately, as well-explained in this book, "in the majority of cases the early pioneers of radically new markets are almost never the ones that scale up and conquer those markets". It's true, again, for the VoIP market.
5. Dream of calling for FREE
When I was a student I was always looking for new ways to save money and to earn money. Making cheap or free calls was one of my first goals. VoIP offered an opportunity to achieve this goal. Unfortunately when I was a student VoIP didn't exist :-)
4. Asterisk
What about downloading your PBX from the web? Asterisk has been a great step forward in enabling competition and in making VoIP easy.
3. Jeff Pulver and VON
Jeff Pulver is widely known as the "guru" of VoIP. Founder of Vonage, founder of Free World Dialup, founder of many other companies in the field of VoIP, he has been (is!) one of the most important "teacher" in this field. Through VON events, he has spread the word worldwide, contributing in making VoIP a widely known technology. In this perspective, Jeff acted like an important "maven". Thanks Jeff!
2. Skype
Who can say the contrary? Skype, because "it just works", break into home users' computers and has spread the word about the potential of VoIP. Many people still associate the acronym "VoIP" to Skype. Moreover, Skype gave a big push to new companies who started working hard to compete with it (Gizmo, the "SIP Skype" is one of them) and to innovate.
1. Broadband
Yes, broadband. To me, it has been the most important reason for a wide adoption of VoIP technology worldwide. And it will be for IPTV as well. Broadband is quickly entering any house, is quickly becoming familiar for any consumer.
All this said, I would like to point out that 1+2 are, in my opinion, the "tipping point" for VoIP. The big explosion of VoIP occurred from the end of 2003 to 2004. In those years Skype was starting its enormous growth and broadband was entering almost any house. To me, both facts have made the difference. That's the reason why I can talk about VoIP in front of my parents and they understand me.
|