VoIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol. This phenomenon has made a profound change in the world of telephone communications. The traditional method of making calls the landlines are being fats replaced by this technology that has taken the world by storm. Not only is this method economical as this does not involve the telephony company charges that are pretty heavy, it also gives you better coverage.

This works through the broadband and uses the World Wide Web to route its calls. The best thing about it is that the person who you are calling through the internet phone need not necessarily have it also to receive your call. A technology that has brought a revolution in our worlds at least deserves that we look into its history.

What I promise you is that if you find its history exciting then you will find its future more intriguing and exciting. The roots of Internet phone service or VoIp goes back to 1995 when a small telecom company called Vocaltec released its first Internet phone software. The software had been designed for a home Pc and used similar attachments like headsets, microphones, sound cards and speakers.

This software called ‘Internet Phone’ used the H.323 protocol instead of the currently prevalent SIP protocol. This software was very well accepted in the market and by 1996 Vocaltec had a successful IPO running. The position that SKYPE occupies in the market was then occupied by Vocaltec. The draw back because of which this software suffered was the non availability of broadband and a resultant poor voice quality owing to modems. The voice quality was worse than the normal phone calls.

However the advancement of technology cannot be denied and it was a big leap forward. An employee of Vocaltec is also amongst the founders of Whichvoip.com 1998 saw VoIP traffic making about 1% of the total voice traffic in the United States. The heat was soon on and companies were head bent in creating softwares to enable PC to phone and phone to phone connections.

Networking manufactures such as Lucent and Cisco soon came out with softwares that could route and switch the VoIP traffic and so by the year 2000 VoIp traffic accounted for 3% of the total voice traffic in United States. 2005 has seen all the major issues concerned with VoIp traffic addressed and thus users are assured of excellent voice quality and unbroken phone calls.

The revenue that has been made out of sale of VoIp equipment alone in the year has been around $3 billion which is expected to reach around $8.5 billion by the close of 2008. The reason behind this astounding figure is low cost unlimited calling plans and also abundance of various services and features in telephone communication related to VoIp technology.

The demand for video over this technology is fueling day by day and with the speed with which this technology is advancing, its growth is frightfully exciting. Video phones have already been launched and a firm called Packet8 is marketing it with attractive features. This seems to be making the impossible possible as our parents and grandparents never thought this possible.