Digital Common Sense

If you really want to spend a little time wisely, you can’t do any better than spending a half hour with someone I think is probably the sharpest knife in the drawer at Skype. It’s been online for a while, but a good friend Just pointed it out to me again and I think it’s worth sharing.

Jonathan Christensen

At the Emerging Communications Conference 2008, Jonathan Christensen of Skype speaks about the development of IP communications over the past 10 years. Christensen is general manager of audio and video at Skype.

The pioneers of VoIP developed the basic technology between 1996 and 2001. The first ever usable VoIP technology that people remember was the VoltaTec VoIP phone. Following that, companies that established gateways across end-points entered the market. They were followed by carriers that established gateways and POPs and connected them to the PSTN networks. The two important use cases that drove the VoIP market were — PC-to-PC ham radio users such as Jeff Pulver, and tandem trunking, or two-staged dialing.

Cost saving potentials and the regulatory framework of VoIP, have changed the telecom industry profoundly. New players have entered the market and influenced prices pushing them down and as a result, per the vision of Jeff Pulver, commoditizing voice.
[Read on ITConversations]

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Filed by Ken at 2:03 pm under Unified Communications