The Internet Telephony Industry
Jeff Pulver President pulver.com NTIA Internet Telephony Forum September 4, 1997 - National Press Club
Introduction
• Internet Telephony Industry - 1997 • Free World Dialup Demonstration • Future Effects on Business
Defined
• What is Internet Telephony?
– PC <---> PC (1995) – PC <---> Phone (1995) – Phone <---> Phone (1996)
• It is NOT about Free Long Distance.
– US International Bureau is seeking accounting rate parity with US and 50 largest trading partners
• Not just “internet telephony” but Voice over IP. If you have TCP/IP connectivity - this technology can be used.
What is needed?
• Pentium class machine (P100 or faster for Netmeeting) • At least a 14.4k connection to the net • Microphone • Speakers (headsets preferred) • Ability to tolerate less than ideal conversations and conditions. • Desire to speak to total strangers.
What is a Gateway?
• Connects from the IP networks and the Public Switched Telephone Networks (PSTN) • “Low End” - NT Class Pentium. P133 or faster with:
– – – – Onboard DSP Network Card PSTN Connection Enabling Software
• Don’t look for these products to be scalable yet.
Who are buying Gateways Today?
• • • • Research Labs Competitors Carriers. ISPs, selected Corporations 1997 is the year of the trial.
1997 History
• Major Telcos announce IT Strategies including:: AT&T, MCI, Sprint, Cable & Wireless and BT. • Corporate Adoption of the “Single Wire Theory” - use of a single network for Voice, Video and Data • Progress in areas of Standards - H.323 Adopted for Interoperablity. • Pulver.com market estimate: US$150 million • About 65 consortiums formed around the world
1997 - (continued)
• By mid-year • 14 companies announced Gateway products. Convergence in the gateway space - from network router companies (Cisco, Bay, Ascend) - to Telcom Equipment Vendors - Nortel, Lucent, Ericsson, and startups - VocalTec, Netspeak, eFusion. • Look for Strategic relationships to continue to drive the marketplace. (DT in VOCLF)
1997 (continued)
• Issues Remaining
– Directory Services (LDAP vs. RAS) – Quality of Service Improvements – Accounting and Settlements
• Regulatory Issues:
– ACTA Petition still remains - yet most ACTA members are now becoming ISPs and are looking at offering IP voice services
• Internet Telephony Acronyms - see http://www.von.org
Enhanced Services
• Voice over IP on IntraNets, ExtraNets and on the Internet • Fax over IP Services • Convergence of traditional CTI and Internet Applications
– Internet Voice Messaging (VPIM) – Internet Call Centers – Distributed / Virtual PBX
Free World Dialup II
• Non-commerical use. Restricted for only calls to friends and family members • 25 Gateways operating at of August 11, 1997 - including gateways in New York, Atlanta and Tacoma, WA. • Project supports phone to phone and net to phone calling. Net to phone is referred to as “Surf&Call”. • About 3 hours a day used on the NY “Switch” • Still looking for Operators • More information - http://pulver.com/fwd
Free World Dialup II
” We are enjoying very much out private Surf&Call page. Foto shows my 7 year old doughter talking with her cousin in NYC, she is 9 years old...”.
The Effect of Voice on the Net
• Reduced barriers to entry via enabled incremental deployment of infrastructure • Internet Telephony is one of the main motivations for countries to accept cost based settlements • The movement of intelligence out of the network to the edges enables fantastic service creation opportunities.
The Effect of Voice on the Net
• The Internet offers new ways to provision customers and deliver information to them. • The cost of connectivity remains proportional to the duration of the connection, thus to the extent packetization of continous data types are possible, packets do it cheaper than circuit switched.
The Effect of Voice on the Net
• Rather than viewing voice on the net as a threat - most of the major telcos embrace this technology and will be using it to create enhanced services • Finally - the mirgration of computer industry based solutions into traditional telecommunications represents a great thing for end users - (lower costs / more services) and industry participants.
Show me the Money!
• Ok - so is making money using this technology today?
– Adult Entertainment Industry – NextGen Telcos
• Great Business Opportunities for Corporate Consultants / System Integrators. • The Three 1995 Internet Telephony Pioneers – VocalTec, Voxware and Netspeak are now Public Companies trading on the NASDAQ exchange in New York. (VOCLF, VOXW, NSPK)
Future Effects on Business
• Voice services being driven to a commodity services. Within 25 years almost anybody will be able to offer a “telephony service”. Challenges to Telstra, AT&T and others is to refine themselves. • Voice Gateways may become as popular as fax servers and print servers within corporations. • Death of the PSTN? No. Death of the PBX? Maybe. • Look for leading edge corporations to begin to offer VoIP and Fax /IP services in early
Resources
• • • • • • • Jeff Pulver - e-mail: jeff@pulver.com IMTC - http://www.imtc.org VON Coalition - http://www.von.org VON Home Page - http://www.von.com Pulver.com - http://pulver.com The Pulver Report - http://pulver.com/reports VON Mailing List - e-mail: majordomo@pulver.com, leave the subject blank - in the body write: subscribe vondigest • Future pulver.com Workshops and
The Internet Telephony Industry
Jeff Pulver President pulver.com NTIA Internet Telephony Forum September 4, 1997 - National Press Club