Jonathan Christensen

GM Audio Video

A Brief History of VoIP

A long time ago…….. 1996-2001

© 2007 by Skype. Commercially confidential.

The Pioneers

Vocaltec’s Internet Phone Gateways: Clarent, NetSpeak, Nuera, Vocaltec, Sonus… Cisco The Carriers: DeltaThree, ITXC, Level3 New breed of internet Codecs - wideband The use cases gel:

End users: PC-PC “Ham radio” scenarios Carriers: site to site “tandem” trunking

Some “mainstream” apps emerge NetMeeting (last updated in 1999 and still in action) 2 Stage dialing: 1 800 CALL-ATT

© 2007 by Skype. Commercially confidential.

Class 5 Switch Tandem

SwitchTandem Switch

Class 5 Switch

Tandem Switch

Tandem Switch

TDM

© 2007 by Skype. Commercially confidential.

Class 5 Switch TDM-IP

Gateway

Class 5 Switch

TDM-IPGateway

VoIP

Death of Distance

© 2007 by Skype. Commercially confidential.

Tandem Trunking

Bandwidth efficiency (more compression, statistical multiplexing) LEC - Avoid the expensive long haul lines Incumbent LD providers could avoid termination fees at the local off-

ramp because the trunk is IP.. Its an unregulated “information service”..

Arbitrage, arbitrage, arbitrage Oh yeah.. And inferior service.. Sometimes offered under “alternative” brands..

Moving on.. 2001

Pulver, Vonage, and Consumer VoIP

© 2007 by Skype. Commercially confidential.

Consumer VoIP

Pulver’s early inspiration Min-X, the IP voice minute exchange Free World Dialup (one port gateway)

Komodo and the first ATA Turns any perfectly good phone into an inferior IP handset Cisco acquires Komodo and validates the market

Vonage is born… Voice over Broadband begins

© 2007 by Skype. Commercially confidential.

VoBB Changes the Players / Power Structure….

Independent Vonage sets the pace early (with lots of cash) Long distance players enter local service markets…

The MSOs respond -- with more Buzzwords and TLAs: “Triple Play” “NGN” “IMS” and the dreaded “Quadruple Play”

© 2007 by Skype. Commercially confidential.

What Do Consumers Get?

© 2007 by Skype. Commercially confidential.

Great Savings? Really? And New Features?

© 2007 by Skype. Commercially confidential.

Another Foot in the Grave…

Beginning of the end? Incumbents match prices and features on TDM Land line telephony is cheap.. Still... Losing to mobile.. Commoditization is complete

VoIP “export” networks are the biggest innovation Send your ATA to India.. Location independent (death of distance – again) Smashing the geocentric numbering plan Further deteriorating the old voice business

The Summer Revolution - 2003

© 2007 by Skype. Commercially confidential.

IM (therefore IP)

IMIM

VoIPVoIP

Video

Video

Visual S

haring

Visual S

haring

Rich Communications

© 2007 by Skype. Commercially confidential.

The Summer of Skype

The stage was set.. The solution was 99% complete Robust IP audio stack Multimedia PCs Broadband penetration P2P file sharing networks running at internet scale NAT traversal techniques IM networks..

Skype simply closed the loop.. One application with the right formula Users loved it.. Industry was confounded.. By fall VoN there were 500K downloads

© 2007 by Skype. Commercially confidential.

276 Million Users Can’t Be Wrong

Global appeal / reach Reliable PSTN interconnect Multitude of device options (PSP, N800, Cordless..) Profitable..

Enter the era of rich [PC based] Internet communications Multi-modal communications (original SIP vision) Real time video, Data, Presence, Text, Wideband Audio Smart endpoints, open platform… Application innovation..

What’s Next?

© 2007 by Skype. Commercially confidential.

Sorting the Mobile Mess

Mobility is the last anchor to the old way Fastest growth telecom service today Spectrum scarcity makes it a perfect walled garden

The good old days again Closed networks.. Device lock-in.. Phone numbers with

geographic bias.. Contracts.. YUCK !!

Finally.. The Internet goes mobile First successful auction - 22 MHz of “700 band” spectrum “Open Platform” conditions apply A new game begins..

© 2007 by Skype. Commercially confidential.

The next 10 years

The Era of Rich Mobile Internet Communications Multi-modal communications (original SIP vision) Real time HD video, Data, Presence, Text, Wideband Audio Smart endpoints, open platform… Application innovation.. Fixed / Mobile Convergence – for real… Mash ups of web based communications Freedom with mobility…

Natural segmentation of competencies

1. Network infrastructure (pipes)

2. Application innovation (developers)

Questions?

An eComm 2008 presentation –

http://eCommMedia.com for more