Another Cheerleader for Internet Telephony:
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Points Of Presence
BY LAURA GUEVIN
Associate Editor, INTERNET TELEPHONY®
[May 7, 1999]
VoIP + Imagination = Talking Cats And IP Ferraris
I admit it. When I first began working for Internet Telephony® magazine last year, I hadn't heard of voice over IP and all the trimmings that come with it. Of course, being familiar with the Internet on a general basis, I realized it had the potential to become a major medium for all sorts of communications. But I had never used it for anything beyond e-mail, instant messaging through ICQ and AOL Instant Messenger, Inter-Relay Chat (IRC), and interactive gaming with text chats. And it was only with the gaming that I truly realized the latency involved with real-time video communication over IP.
Now it's difficult for me to keep from becoming an Internet telephony cheerleader. True, I read about the latest product developments and industry news on a daily basis. But I'm beginning to see more about this technology in the mainstream and niche press. Take my father, for example, who works for a company that manufactures static-protective laminate. That's a pretty specific market, with a well-entrenched customer base. He came across an introductory article on Internet telephony in a recent issue of Compliance Engineering, a trade magazine that covers international regulatory compliance, mainly for the electronics industry. The article discussed the economic benefits of implementing this technology, and mentioned recent developments in existing private networks that have improved quality and bandwidth -- the issues so often associated with voice over IP.
I find that pretty impressive, especially since the article cited figures from Forrester Research that the voice over IP market will take away about $3 billion from U.S. phone companies by 2004. And a recent article in Newsweek said that more than 16 million people around the world use the Internet as their long-distance carrier. I could go on. Killen & Associates say about 18 percent of Fortune 1000 voice traffic will travel over IP by 2002. The possibilities for this market are endless. But how will it evolve and what types of products will utilize IP for voice and video communications?
WHERE WILL IT LEAD?
Right now, if you want to make a voice call over IP, all you have to do is pick up your phone and dial one of various local or toll-free access numbers through an Internet telephony service provider to connect the call over their network. Or, if you have multimedia capability on your PC, you can call directly using free software available from a multitude of companies including: Net2Phone, Delta Three, Big Bits Software, MediaRing, VocalTec, and White Pine. Better yet, if your business utilizes IP for voice communications, you have a transparent connection to the Net directly from the phone on your desk.
But where will the future of voice over IP take us? A report from Forrester Research says that by 2004, future devices -- mainly the telephone, television, and PC, will use smart packs to deliver focused, personalized Internet content to consumers. The smart packs will utilize low-cost microprocessors, and phone and wireless Internet connections to deliver IP-based voice and video. A common use could be phones that link to personal and public address listings and seek out information like movie listings........
Read the rest of the article at the link below and you can also register there to win an interactive Ferrari. Just kidding.
tmcnet.com
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