Internet Telephony – Could it finally be taking off?

This has been an interesting week.  I’ve been thinking a lot about Internet Telephony – specifically about how the IP-based voice communications applications that I envisioned years ago have somehow not materialized.  Sure, I use Skype… and Google Voice is out there… and Asterisk is a success despite it’s backwards TDMA thinking and horrific thread model… but back in 1999-2000 I had DREAMS!  I envisioned a whole new class of applications that would bypass the telephone network (PSTN) and leverage what the Intenet is good at.  I wrote about some of this in the Linux Journal published in early 2001.

What happened?  I’m not sure.  I think that the world was only partly ready for that kind of thing.

But recently there’s been substantial discussion on the IETF AVT Working Group about an effort to standardize on a new voice codec for Internet use.  Something totally suited for the Internet, something wideband – so the voice quality is much better – something royalty free to encourage adoption.  Of course I’m a huge Speex believer (I co-authored RFC-5574) but I’m open to anything that will enable innovation.  The diversity of folks who have spoken up for this us astounding.  It makes me wonder… can the era of innovation in Internet Telephony be about to happen?

Back in the dark ages – oh, 1998 or so – Ed Okerson and I hooked up.  We were introduced by the (then) VP Engineering at Quicknet, Dave Erhart.  We were both Linux geeks, and both seriously interested in VoIP on linux.  Within a month or so of introduction we had ‘first voice’ – a poor quality call over the internet using Quicknet cards – on Linux!  Not long after that we were both Quicknet employees and we started an epic march towards a dream – one that was dashed on the shores of the Internet bubble bursting.  But that’s a different story.

Ed and I spoke this week.  That’s not unusual, we’ve been friends for a decade and even founded a company together.  But the topic was one we’ve not explored for awhile.  There’s some action again in the Internet Telephony space – there’s a hardware vendor that is interested in what we did what back then, and what *might* be able to happen in the future.  That, combined with the activity in the IETF, gives me hope.  Maybe Ed and I were just 10 years too early… maybe the dawn of the new era is around the corner.  A man can dream, right?

What do you think?  Is VoIP something you use?  If not, why not?  What do YOU want out of Internet Telephony?