The Jeff Pulver Blog: Tom Evslin: The Third Stage of the VoIP Rocket Never Fired

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October 11, 2007

Tom Evslin: The Third Stage of the VoIP Rocket Never Fired

"There is no third stage of VoIP as an incremental improvement on POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service). Instead there is a whole new way to communicate. POTS won’t be improved; it’ll just be replaced. The rearguard action fought by traditional phone companies will eventually result in their over-priced and underperforming voice services being replaced and abandoned since they aren’t being improved (unless those companies can control the Internet – that’s a big unless).

In the new communication world – which is already forming inside social networks – live voice and voice mail are just two on a continuum of choices people have for communicating with each other. Video’s a choice; so is text and email and still pictures. Communication can be live and real-time; it can be slightly async like texting; or seriously async like email. The modes of communication mix freely. Two or more people using different devices communicate at the highest common denominator rather than the lowest.

And there are no more phone numbers, just names and handles (made up names). There’s no more great directory in the sky; there’s the union of the directories of the social networks we use and our personal directories. We’ll know who’s “calling” us as surely as we know whom we’re calling (callerID today tells you where a call is made from, not who is making it)...It’s been an interesting ten years. And it’s only the beginning."

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Yes it has been an interesting ten years. An Amazing ten years. And as Tom said, this is only the beginning. The Thrid Stage of the VoIP Rocket is one of the topics friends will hear more about during my Industry Perspective at Fall 2007 VON.

Tags: FWD, VON, VoIP, Tom Evslin, Jeff Pulver