A Brief History of VOIP

By the end of 2005, Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) may account for as much as 25 - 40% of international voice traffic. This prediction is impressive, but it is even more amazing when you consider the relatively short history of VOIP. It began as a hobby for some people in Israel who were only able to communicate by computer.

Later that year, in 1995, the first company in the history of VOIP to put a product on the market was Vocaltec. They released Internet Phone Software, which in combination with a home computer, sound card, speakers, microphone and modem allowed users to make a phone call over the internet. However, the people on both ends had to have the same setup, and sound quality was much less than on a normal phone.

In 1998, there were more milestones in the history of VOIP. Entrepreneurs began to recognize the potential of the technology and soon computer-to-phone and phone-to-phone connections (still using a computer for the transmission) were possible for making voice calls over the internet. The service was available using a phone at a provider's location in North America only. It required the users to listen to an advertisement at the beginning and end of each phone call, but in exchange their long distance calls were free. In 1998, less than 1% of voice calls were made using VOIP.

Businesses began to use VOIP over their intranets to help communicate within their company. But with the introduction of switching equipment in 1998 by 3 manufacturing companies, the history of VOIP took a turn towards the future. Now VOIP could become more readily available to users at home instead of at a specific facility belonging to the provider. By the year 2000, more than 3% of voice calls were made over the internet using VOIP.

Today, there are both hardware and software options for those interested in VOIP for their personal use. You can purchase hardware that will allow you to use your normal phone handset when making a phone call. You can buy phones that are VOIP ready and need only an internet broadband connection. Or, you can purchase or download software that will let you use your computer instead of a phone, provided that you have speakers, a microphone, and an appropriate sound card.

A company that offers free software is Skype (www.skype.com). But other services will require a purchase or subscription fee. Many phone companies have begun to offer packages that include local and long distance VOIP calls for a flat monthly fee. With the advent of broadband services, sound quality has become parallel to regular land line phones for the first time in the history of VOIP. And the number of people using VOIP is only expected to grow.