Ideas such as phoning someone over your personal computer may have been somewhat silly in the old times when technological advantages such as broadband connections weren't discovered yet. But now that the needed innovations are readily available, the popularity of VoIP have dramatically increased. This is amusing, considering VoIP's short history.
The idea for VoIP started when several people distinguished the possibility of transmitting voice data through the internet instead of communicating the normal way (which is via telephone). This laid the groundwork for the very first VoIP product. In 1995, Vocaltec, one of the pioneers of VoiP introduced the software for the internet phone. This application requires a
home personal computer with soundcard, modem, speaker, and microphone. But even if you have all the aforementioned, the person you should be phoning must also have the same setup.
The
fad of VoIP immediately caught on and for the following years, about 1% of the voice calls are already being made through the internet through an authorized facility. When this service had been readily available, a lot of people made long-distance calls for free, although they would have to listen to annoying advertisements before and after each phone call. By the year 2000, 3% of long-distance calls are already being made through internet protocol. Now, both hardware and software can be bought in the market if one is interested on making VoIP their business or for own use.
