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November 30, 2004

February 15, 2005 – Celebrate Global VoIP Day!

February 15, 2005 will mark the tenth anniversary of VocalTec’s initial release of Internet Phone, a product which should forever be remembered as the application which launched the commercial VoIP industry when it was released on February 15, 1995.

I realize there are a number of other dates which one could argue have much more historic relevance with respect to the evolution of the commercial internet. However, I am not aware of any date more significant for the growing multi-billon dollar IP Communications Industry than the date in 1995 when Internet Phone was first released to the public.

Internet Phone was an application way ahead of it’s time and it performed quite well in the era of the dial-up internet when used on a circa 1994 Windows PC. VocalTec’s original team of developers who worked on Internet Phone are some of the true pioneers of the VoIP industry who hardly get the recognition that they deserve. Personally, I would like to see these developers get all the credit they deserve. :-)

In fact, what I would like to see the global IP Communications Industry recognize Tuesday, February 15, 2005 as the first Global VoIP Day. Let’s all use a VoIP application on February 15th!

Posted by jeff on November 30, 2004 12:55 AM | Permalink

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Comments

A Post-dated blog entry? Hmm...

Posted by: Anonymous at December 6, 2004 03:12 PM

Jeff, where does NetSpeak sit on the continuum, while we're talking about "the beginnings?"

re Vocaltech in 1995, you've just brought back some fond memories of long drawn-out battles on the Compuserve Telecommunications Forum, where I took quite a bit of guff over the prospect of an "IP Phone" ever being anything more than a desktop item at some future point in time in a Ham operator's shack next to the Morse key.

73s, OM, WV2PSN

Frank

Posted by: Frank Coluccio at December 4, 2004 08:02 PM

I wholeheartedly support this.

In 1999 when I bought my TerraTec XLerate Pro, a VocalTec InternetPhone 4.5 serial number was bundled with it, and I became a user not much later. I have talked to people from Germany, the U.S., Pakistan, Israel and some other places with it, on a mere 33.6 kbps modem; this without any serious trouble, with quite decent sound quality.

The community owes those people a huge ‘thank you’.

Posted by: Ralesk Ne’vennoyx at November 30, 2004 03:42 AM