How has VoIP changed over the years?

How has VoIP changed over the years?

Long distance communications have been around for a very long time. From the telegraph used in the American Civil War, to carrier pigeons in World War I. Humans have had methods of communicating over long distances for longer than most people would think. The question is though “How has VoIP change over the years?” In this blog, we will discuss some of the history of phone communications, as well as the history of VoIP over the course of its 30 year existence.

History of the Phone

First, before we can talk about the history of VoIP, we have to talk about the phone. After all, VoIP wouldn’t even be possible without the phone. The first telephone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876; the first phone call was made three days after Alexander was granted a patent for his invention.

Since then, the phone has adapted and changed over the course of time. By the 1960’s landline phones were mainstream and in almost every home by that point. Some strides were made in that time to try and convert a voice into a digital signal with menial success. It wasn’t until the 1990’s where big strides were made and VoIP was introduced.

The Introduction of VoIP

Once the 90’s hit, phones and phone services started to resemble what we have today. Marian Croak is credited with creating and shaping the VoIP landscape we know today. Her and her team at the time successfully figured out a way to transmit speech digitally over the internet without losing vocal quality.

The 1990’s also saw the introduction of many various VoIP services with one of the first commercial services being Speak Freely. Speak Freely was the first consumer VoIP application available on the market, and would eventually be followed up by many other VoIP providers throughout the 90’s and early 2000’s.

VoIP Today

After the turn of the century, VoIP fully transitioned to become what it is today. Broadband internet became much more affordable and widespread by this time. This paved the way for VoIP providers to really take advantage of the updated infrastructure, by providing the VoIP service offerings we see today such as: hosted VoIP, video conferencing, CCaaS, etc.

As time goes on, we will undoubtedly continue to see further advancement in this space; at this point however, the sky’s the limit.