VoIP Developer

I remember my dad telling me when I was younger not to waste my money on a record player because cassettes were going to be the thing!

As it was, records and cassettes co-existed for some time before CDs replaced records and (over a decade later, after CD-Rs became widely available) cassettes too.

Most of us will remember the introduction of various technologies. We will remember (perhaps) technologies that disappeared as quickly as they arrived. We live with the technologies that made it, and then there are the technologies where there have been celebrated battles for dominance in the delivery methodology for that technology (the easiest to point to being VHS versus Betamax for the domestic VCR market as I write this my spellings checker has already red-underlined Betamax just to remind me which of the two won!).

So what about VoIP?

VoIP is definitely a technology that is HERE. Some PBX vendors now only sell equipment based on VoIP. Ebay is full of new VoIP stuff (a very positive sign) and there is also a lot of TDM (T1) equipment listed, but guess what it is all usedstuff that has been ripped out, probably to make way for new VoIP deployments.

Is ISDN now obsolete? Has VoIP made it into user consciousness? Is SIP the new VHS (albeit in a different technology area)?

In this world of rumours, intrigue and all those handy at the fingertip statistics it is sometimes hard to get a conclusive view of where we really are with VoIP. Sure, we can read analysis that concludes VoIP penetration to hit 27% by end of 2008 or Carrier VoIP equipment market up 40% year-over-year but where are we really? And what difference is it making to us (the people) in terms of new features or reduced costs?

To help put this information in a suitable context I thought it would be interesting to compare the position of VoIP today (5 years or so after mainstream introduction) with that of ISDN when it had been around for a similar period of time, and to examine what needs to happen for VoIP to further extend its reach.

To do this, I spoke with a friend and colleague called Mike Matthews. Mike is Head of Product Marketing at Aculab and, as well as being an all-round nice guy, hes a good person bounce ideas around with.

I caught up with Mike mid-morning, a time when he is usually at the peak of his mental powers and intellectual prowess. Here is how the conversation went:

David: Hello Mike.

Mike: Oh, hi David.

David: I wanted to talk to you about VoIP and its progress to date comparing it with ISDN and the progress it had made after a similar period of time.

Mike: Great! Id be happy to help out because I spent quite a few years at Mitel in the 80s and 90s, a crucial time for ISDN.

David: So Mike, what are your earliest memories of commercial ISDN?

Mike: I remember, back in 88-89, doing presentations to Mitel customers about the new DASSII digital telephony connections we were working with.

David: That long ago? And for how long did you continue to see analogue lines being used by your enterprise customers?

Mike: We were still selling a few systems using analogue lines up until 91-92.

David: Sounds like ISDN dominated the analogue lines within about 4 years for enterprise customers why is VoIP taking so long to become dominant?

Mike: Ah, theres an interesting question. There are a number of points to remember. First lets remember that although ISDN was a new technology, in that it was digital, the fundamental principle of the circuit switched connection stayed the same whereas with VoIP the move to packet based communications for voice is a huge step, with several large issues to overcome. It is, therefore, no surprise that things are taking longer for the widespread adoption of VoIP. Next we need to consider that, although we refer to ISDN generically, DASSII that I mentioned earlier proved to be one of many differing protocols for ISDN communications. Even today there is not a global standard, Europe uses an E1 connection with A-law encoded speech while the US and Japan use T1 connections and encode the speech in -law.

David: Would this be comparable with the way the whole H.323 versus SIP thing has happened?

Mike: Sort of. I almost (simplistically) see H.323 as the version 1 of VoIP communications and SIP as the version 2. H.323 was telecoms people trying to replicate what theyve always done (check out the similarities with Q.931), but over IP. SIP was the IP community saying Hey, we can find a better way, more native to the ethos of the internet.. And they have SIP is much more generic and much closer to the internet way of doing things, and its not restricted to voice. The session that is initialised could be for any type of interchange video for example. Thirdly, we must not forget the 10 times factor

David: The 10 times factor?

Mike: Yes. New things do not overtake existing things until they have the 10 times factor on their side meaning they are 10 times cheaper, 10 times easier to use, 10 times quickeryou get the idea?

David: I do. VoIP could certainly be 10 times cheaper than conventional telephony at some stage but what about the other attributes?

Mike: There is lots of scope. VoIP could offer 10 times the features of current telephony presence, etc. We could find VoIP offering significantly higher speech quality at some stage, with the newer codecs that are starting to emerge. But it is only when this 10 times thing happens that VoIP will force ISDN and individual analogue subscriber lines into obsolescence.

David: Interesting ideas, Mike. Thanks very much for your time.

Mike: Anytime.

Mike got me thinking on several fronts one of them being protocols. If we were to judge protocols that are used for call control by use, Skype (peer to peer) would be right up there because so many people use it. And then theres IAX(2) the Asterisk protocol its use appears to be in the ascendancy.

Will this fragmentation help or hinder the uptake of VoIP?

SIP is still looking favourite. BT (the UK telco) have announced plans for what they call their 21st Century Network which will have a SIP backbone, and it can only be so long before people get fed up of having to find and pay for gateway equipment. The protocol the network uses will surely push its way to the endpoints over time.

I guess this is one of those watch this space things.

If you would like to see one of my live presentations, or just say Hello, I will be speaking at the following conference:

VoIP Developer Conference, San Francisco
Tuesday - 08/02/05, 2:30-3:30pm
Wednesday, 08/03/05, 4:30-4:50pm

Until the next time.

David Duffett
[email protected]