Voice over Internet Protocol, also known as Voice Over IP, or "VoIP", refers to the practice of sending telephone conversations across an IP network such as The Internet.

A number of computer protocols exist which can be used to initiate such calls and carry the voice signal in form of computer audio data. In fact, sending telephone conversations across the internet is very much like sending a real time video stream. Actually, it is much simpler in some ways - re: less data, and harder in other ways re:real time.

The main protocols for initiating VoIP calls are SIP and IAX. The first, Insustrial strength internet standard protocol which describe how to establish communication sessions between two network entities like network based telephones. There exists a large selection of software and hardware products and open source software compatible with this protocol. You can download free applications for your computer from a number of vendors which will let you place telephone calls to other network telephone for free. Or you can purchase an app which will come with no *catches* - Re: ads, etc...

The second, IAX is much simpler but open an protocol by a small software/hardware vendor who have chosen to put the core of their VoIP software, called "Asterisk", out into the public domain. This software is rapidly gaining a favorable following in the open source community. Using this and other open source software, an average computer geek can start their own international calling card business, with a little extra homemade software to tie it all together, and on a very cheap budget, hardware included. These and other related technologies will do for the world of the telephone what Unix did for computing and the internet in particular.

The impact of VoIP is going to be similar to that of email or The Web. Email and The Web have profoundly changed the way in which we communicate, they have created and ruined vast business empires, and they have done so at a dizzying pace. They are good examples for what can happen when you take the breaks off technological innovation.

The telephone, while universally and incredibly useful, has not really changed since the the early 1900's. Even cell phones are not really that big a step forward (taking the leish off a dog does not make for a new type of animal). Video phones have been available (and unaffordable) since the 1960's. So, what has changed? First, there is a lack of desire for regulatory control from the (US) government. Second, there is an inability of any one commercial entity to control the speed and direction of innovation. Third, with the advent of broadband internet, there now exists a technological infrastructure which can be used by just about anybody to implement new ideas quickly and cheaply.

Besides ridiculously cheap or free longdistance (which is a good thing, right?), what does this mean for me? Well, in the long term, voice communication of all types will become, essentially, free. There will be no difference between the telephone company, the cable company, and your ISP. Telephones and computers will merge as telephones get smarter and computers learn how to initiate and answer phone calls.

This means that telephones will start to become part of other computerized devices you will be able to call China for free from your television .. or from the front panel of your fridge. It may also mean that you can call your fridge from the store to ask it how much milk there is left. Your house will call you if somebody shows up on your doorstep while you are gone so you can buzz them in. More importantly, your house will know to find you whereever you may be. You will no longer need a phone number. You will be reachable as sip:yourname@yourdomain.com. And that phone "address" will not need to change when you move.

Not all the news is good though. If our government does not take the right precautions now, you may find yourself increasingly getting phone calls from some spammer's computer half way around the world who will want to sell you Viagra, fake rolex watches, or broomstickes...point made...but if only you would give them your personal banking information! Criminals will be able to use that same VoIP technology to initiate thousands of calls simultaneously to scan for the best fraud victims using demographic databases and voice stress analysis... and they will be able to do so at literally no cost, and leaving no trace. AND! (if there is a fee) -- YOU WILL GET TO PAY FOR THE CALL!

In near future practical terms, new business empires will be born while others will be transformed or crumble. As a consumer, your phone bill should continue to shrink, and there will be some really interesting new products and services coming your way.

Alexander Graham Bell was actually trying to improve the telegraph when he realized that somebody's voice could be reproduced in another location by hooking up a microphone in one place to a speaker in different place through a pair of wires. This simple yet profound idea almost instantly changed the way people and organizations communicate and started a whole new industry. The first telephone did not have a dial, let alone a key pay. There was only one other phone in the world to call - the one next door.

The total *Old School* phone system. The first phone lines were set up to connect individual pairs of telephones. There were still no numbers to call. You just picked up the receiver, cranked a handle on a little generator that would generate enough electricity to ring a bell at the other end. Then, hopefully, somebody there would pick up the receiver.

Parts of the world were already strung with wires for telegraph service, so adding a few more wires or repurposing existing ones was relatively straight forward. Point to point connections, also known as dedicated lines, sprung up in several places. If you wanted to be able to talk to people in different locations, you would need a line connecting your office to each destination, and one at each end of every line.

There are several problems with this, some more obvious than others. First, you can only call one place. Second, stringing lines over long distances is horrendously expensive and only insanely rich individuals or big organizations could afford it.

Businesses quickly realized that they could invest some money stringing cable around the countryside and then let others use those lines, for a fee, until the end of time. More importantly, they could use the same lines for many customers by connecting customer phones to shared lines only on demand.

Quickly, telephone cables were strung throughout cities world wide to provide telephone service to larger and larger numbers of customers. Ladies donning bolbous beaufonts (aka Bee Hive hairdoos) were hired to sit in offices relatively close to the customers (local exchanges). From there, dedicated (local) lines ran to individual customers. The exchanges were connected to other exchanges including exchanges in other cities. Customers were assigned numbers, eliminating the need for those ladies to remember which customer was connected to what local line.

It was a time of massive capital investment and technological innovation. Then, for for the next 3/4 century, telephone services got a little cheaper, more reliable, and easier to use, but very little changed until the introduction of the cell phone and the internet based telephony - or re: VoIP.

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