28 March 2008

About five years ago, when few had heard of Voice-over-Internet
Protocol (VoIP) as an alternative to the dominance of the big telephone
companies, the promises of dramatically lower long distance charges and
more features seemed almost too good to be true.

Initially, it was. Conversations either lagged or sounded like they
were routed through a toilet bowl, while calls were mysteriously
dropped. It all served to underline the telecoms' assertion that VoIP
wasn't yet mature enough for business or consumers.

But since then, the technology's growth - especially in the business
sector - has been strong. While the old copper-wire landline still has
a few years ahead of it, the evolution of IP-based telephony will
become an even bigger story in the telecommunications industry.