Vint Cerf hears VoIP calling
Published: 11 Sep 2003 10:00 BST
For someone widely regarded as the father of the Internet, Vint Cerf can be surprisingly coy about predicting the future.
Too much has happened in the last several years and too many crystal balls have proved wanting. But when it comes to forecasting the adoption of voice over IP, the veteran computer scientist has no such reluctance to qualify this as one of the next big things to affect the technology firmament.
Cerf, nowadays the senior vice president of Internet Architecture and Technology for MCI, says that traditional telecommunications carriers are finally taking VoIP seriously. Indeed, Cerf, who created the TCP/IP protocol that now defines online communication spends a good part of his time focused on VoIP, the cheaper form of telephony, expecting it to permanently alter the telephone industry.
Already, MCI's network is being transformed into one that uses the Internet Protocol to route calls, not traditional phone switches. As a result, it can already do much more than just make phone calls. And that's just with present day technology
But as MCI moves to VoIP, it faces the immediate spectre of regulatory issues that's created a schism between the nation's largest phone companies trying to halt VoIP's spread into consumer telephone plans and the "Net heads" that support this cheaper way of making a phone call. Currently, the nation's largest phone companies are trying to coax the Federal Communications Commission into regulating VoIP.
Cerf spoke with CNET News.com about VoIP technology and why he expects this upcoming transformation to pick up speed throughout the rest of 2004.
Q: Did you ever think IP and phones would merge, as they have with VoIP?
A: In 1973, I didn't have any idea it would. The Internet was just an idea. By 1988, I was convinced this was going to be a big deal and I wanted to find a way to make a commercial service. By 1989 it was. Then Netscape created a huge impact on the utility of the network. I'd be lying to you if I said I predicted all that.
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