VoIP History 101 from iLocus

If anyone is interested in a history lesson concerning the technology that drives our business, iLocus recently published a well written piece that will give you some historical perspective.

While it does not go into great depths to describe the core origins of voice over packet networks from a technical perspective, it does a great job of shedding light on ten companies who did the heavy lifting to bring the technology to where it is today, and may help you better understand where it is going.

Highlights include:

1 – The application that started it all, Internet Phone from VocalTec. VocalTec also brought us the very first IP>PSTN Gateway and the RAS gatekeeper element. Mad props!

2 – Level 3 pioneers the softswitch and ushers in the transition from H.323 to MGCP.

3 – ITXC articulates the wholesale model for VoIP and lays the foundation for QoS and interoperability.

4 – Sonus develops scalable IP Voice gateways.

5 – 3GPP drafts the IMS blueprint which directly promotes the proliferation of VoIP.

6 – Cisco created demand for VoIP in the Enterprise market and nurtured ATA/CPE development to support residential VoIP deployment.

7 – Skype shakes up the industry in many ways.

8 – Softbank BB serves as the first major test lab for residential VoIP.

9 – Nextone brings us distributed session border controller (SBC) architecture and SIP > H.323 internetworking.

10 – Spectralink brings mobility to VoIP.