The Jeff Pulver Blog: Jeff Pulver: All telephone communications will become IP based

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October 23, 2006

Jeff Pulver: All telephone communications will become IP based

Every once in a while, I actually get quoted in context and it seems my words were undersood when I spoke last week in Barbados at the Information Society of Barbados (ISB) Conference..

I was invited to speak about the state of Voice over IP. I used the opportunity to share some of the thoughts that I will be sharing later this week in Rome at VON Italy 2006.

The following story ran today in the Barbados Advocate:

Jeff Pulver: All telephone communications will become IP based

By Randy Howard

"GLOBALLY renowned thought leader, author, entrepreneur and true pioneer in the Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) industry, Jeff Pulver, is of the opinion that in time all global telecommunications will become Internet Protocol (IP) based.

Pulver was delivering his feature address at last week's Information Society of Barbados (ISB) Conference held at the Sherbourne Conference Centre. He made the point that when VoIP (the routing of voice conversations over the Internet or through any other IP-based network) was first developed, and was being used by many individuals for the purpose of evading tariffs on long distance phone calls, the international telecommunications community viewed the technology as being disruptive, and therefore petitioned against its use.

In his opinion, this industry has spent too much time and energy on creating rules and regulations to govern the use of VoIP as opposed to embracing the technology and developing it and making it available for wider use in the community. Pulver made the point however, that despite these objections, the use of VoIP continued to grow at a rapid pace, and the threat of this wide spread use resulted in telephone companies in the United States dropping to their overseas rates, particularly to their major trading partners.

He argued that the development and evolution of the technology, which essentially cannot be brought to a halt, will lead to a major change in the way that those around the world communicate. He stated, however, that this does not mean the death of telephone companies, but rather that these companies will have to embrace the technology and use it as the basis for their services."