IP Convergence: Beyond VoIP, Beyond Cost Savings

The Seven Wonders of Telecommunications

This is a post that was inspired by the latest poll results on the latest Seven Wonders of the World.  In case you missed the list:  The final tally produced this list of the world's top human-built wonders: Link here

1. ·          The Great Wall of China
2. ·          Petra in Jordan
3. ·          Brazil's statue of Christ the Redeemer
4. ·          Peru's Machu Picchu
5. ·          Mexico's Chichen Itza pyramid
6. ·          The Colosseum in Rome
7. ·          India's Taj Mahal

I created this list with telecommunications as the focus, and the criteria involved technologies and products that had the broadest and most significant impact to telecommunications.

1)      The telephone  - I believe this should fall in the “Ya think?!?!” category.  Humans have an insatiable urge to communicate, and the phone was the first and most significant step to communications across a significant (beyond yelling) distance.  I will say that, at times, yelling can be more effective though.  ;)

2)      The modem – Here I am referring to the Hayes Communications “Smartmodem” that became the standard for digital communications across an analog network (POTS)

3)      TCP/IP – The Internet protocol suite.  With the importance of the Internet, this is more/less a no-brainer.

4)      SIP – Session Initiation Protocol has won out as the defacto standard for Voice over IP and its associated applications.

5)      Ethernet – The reason Ethernet is listed here is simply due to its simplicity.  The LAN standard just isn’t difficult to understand and use.  With Ethernet creeping into the WAN as well, things are getting bigger, faster and less expensive.

6)      WIFI – This article here explains it all.  WIFI more important than Starbucks coffee?!?!?  That puts is on the list of seven!!

7)      Asterisk – I am putting this open-source IP-PBX due to the fact that it single-handedly exposed the craziness in IP-PBX pricing models. It’s better, fast, and a whole heck of a lot cheaper.  This would need to get some more maturity before it made the “all-time” list.

Adam “voiploser” Uzelac