A True Believer - Commentary - Column

Telecommunications, Feb, 2002

Almost every time I travel it's to attend an industry conference. But I recently made a trip specifically to meet with a couple of service providers, one a still young but successful VoIP carrier and the other a telecom Goliath. Sorry, no names. Of course it was no surprise to hear the first talk about the virtues of VoIP, but it was more surprising to hear the second state that if MSOs added voice to their existing data and cable TV services they would give the wake-up call that CLECs have not been able to deliver to the RBOCs.

I'll confess that I've not always been a believer in VoIP, but I've come around to the view that there is a sort of inexorable logic in moving toward the goal of delivering all services via a single protocol. Sure there are hurdles aplenty on the way to this vision and the circuit-based PSTN still remains the standard for reliability in our business. I mean, you'd use redundant routers for IP network reliability, but you wouldn't stick dual Class 5 switches to ensure voice services to subscribers, right? VoIP, I'm convinced, will happen not only because it's cheaper than TDM-based voice but also because it will enable the birth of new applications that recognize no distinctions between voice and data. And people will want and demand these new capabilities for the same reasons that we can't seem to do without our cell phones: convenience and efficiency.

No way do I intend to minimize the issues that must be overcome for IP to become the all-purpose network. But at the same time, packet technology development seems to be following a trajectory that perhaps is unmatched in our industry by any other technology with the notable exception of optical networking. I could be wrong here, but at least from where we sit the buzz seems to be all about IP and optics.

One of the challenges at Telecommunications magazine is developing ideas for cover stories. An inordinate amount of thought goes into it each issue. We're proud to note that we made cable telephony a cover story back in December 1999. We revisited VoIP with our July 2000 cover story on next-gen switches. With so much progressing in this portion of the industry, it's certainly not too soon to recheck what's been happening with voice over cable.

Sam Masud

Senior Technology Editor