VOiP - Timeline

From the invention of the telephone to the VOIP we know today.

1876 - Alexander Graham Bell invents the telephone.

1927 - The first transatlantic call is made over radio waves.

1958 - The Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) is formed by the US government to expand America's technological frontiers, in response to the USSR's launch of Sputnik 1 the previous year.

1960s - The US telephone system gradually begins converting its internal connections to a packet-based, digital switching system.

1961 - Leonard Kleinrock at MIT publishes the first paper on packet switching theory.

1962 - JCR Licklider, of MIT, publishes a paper discussing his “Galactic Network” concept. He envisioned a globally interconnected set of computers through which everyone could quickly access data and programmes from any site.

1962 - ARPA forms the Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO), which conducts research on command and control systems.

1965 - The first wide area computer network is built.

1967 - MIT researcher Lawrence G. Roberts, intending to realise Licklider's idea, publishes his plan for the “Arpanet”.

1969 - The first node is connected to the Arpanet. By the end of that year, four host computers are connected.

1970 - The first packet network, AlohaNet, is developed at the University of Hawaii.

1970 - The Network Working Group (NWG) finishes the initial Arpanet host-to-host protocol, called the Network Control Protocol (NCP).

1972 - ARPA becomes DARPA (Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency). It subsequently went back to ARPA on 22 February 1993, and then back to DARPA again on 11 March 1996.

1972 - Arpanet is publicly demonstrated for the first time at the International Computer Communication Conference (ICCC).

1973 - The Network Voice Protocol (NVP) is first implemented by internet researcher Danny Cohen of the Information Sciences Institute (ISI), University of Southern California, with funding from ARPA's Network Secure Communications (NSC) programme.

1973 - FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is introduced.

1973 - Arpanet makes its first international connection, while Bob Kahn and Vint Cerf team up to develop the details of the protocols that will become TCP/IP.

1973 - Bob Metcalfe at Xerox PARC develops Ethernet technology.

1973 - Dr Martin Cooper of Motorola Corporation makes what was probably the first cellular telephone call on a portable handset called the Dyna-Tac. After a successful test run, he took it to New York to introduce the technology to the public.

1973 - The experimental Network Voice Protocol is invented for the ARPANET providers.

1974 - BBN announces “Telenet”, the first public packet data service.

1977 - Fibre-optic cables are first used for telephone transmission when both GTE and AT&T laid fibre-optic lines in Chicago and Boston.

1980s - The telecommunications industry conceived that digital services would follow much the same pattern as voice services, and conceived a vision of end-to-end circuit switched services, known as the Broadband Integrated Services Digital Network (B-ISDN).

1980 - Widespread development of workstations, PCs and LANs.

1983 - The Arpanet host protocol changes from NCP to TCP/IP as of 1 January.

1984 - A standards movement is started by the International Telephone and Telegraph Consultative Committee (CCITT), now known as the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). The ITU is a United Nations organisation that coordinates and standardises international telecommunications.

1984 - The National Science Foundation develops the first wide area network designed specifically to use TCP/IP.

1985 - The internet is a well-established technology supporting a wide community of researchers and developers.

1986 - The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) starts as a quarterly meeting of US government-funded researchers.

1987 - The idea for ADSL is introduced by Joe Leichleder, a Bellcore researcher.

1988 - Leichleder develops ADSL by placing wideband digital signals above the existing baseband analogue voice signal carried between telephone company central offices and customers on conventional twisted pair cabling.

1988 - Robert Morris sends a worm through the internet, affecting 6 000 of the 60 000 hosts on the network.

1989 - The first ISPs, including the first dial-up ISP world.std.com, are formed.
1989 - DSL is developed.

1990 - Arpanet is decommissioned and McGill University releases the Archie search engine.

1990 - Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau, working at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN), jointly propose to create a hypertext system (HTTP and HTML) accessible via browsers, which would form the basis of the World Wide Web.

1992 - The Internet Society is formed and the IETF is transferred to operate under it as an independent international standards body.

1993 - One of the first graphical web browsers, Mosaic, is released by Marc Andreessen at the US National Centre for Supercomputing Applications.

1994 - A DSL Forum is formed to help telephone companies and their suppliers realise the great market potential of ADSL.

1995 - The first internet phone software is released by Vocaltec.

1996 - POP3 (Post Office Protocol version 3) is published.

1996 - Internet phones catch the attention of US telecommunication companies, which ask the US Congress to ban the technology.

1997 - The original version of IEEE 802.11, the wireless LAN standard, is released.

1997 - 2 000th request for comments – “Internet Official Protocol Standards” – from the internet Architecture Board. The American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) is established to handle administration and registration of IP numbers to the geographical areas currently handled by Network Solutions (InterNIC), starting March 1998.

1998 - Three IP switch manufacturers introduce equipment capable of switching.

1998 - French internet users give up their access on 13 December to boycott France Telecom's local phone charges (which are in addition to the ISP charge).

2005 - The one-billionth internet user goes online.

2006 - Mass-market VOIP services over broadband internet access services are popular and successful.

Telecommuniation Timeline.

1834 Carl F.Gauss and Ernst H. Weber build the electromagnetic telegraph. The telegraph was the first step to making electrical signals travel from one device to another.

1844 Samuel F.B. Morse demonstrates the Baltimore, MD, and Washington, DC, telegraph line.

1860 Philipp Reis develops a “telephon.” Reis's phone was the first instrument to transmit the spoken word.

1864 James C. Maxwell predicts electromagnetic radiation.

1866 The second transatlantic cable is installed. (The first failed after 26 days in 1858.) Telephone communication was available between the two countries.

1874 Alexander Graham Bell discovers the principle of the telephone.

1876 US Patent No. 174,465, issued on March 3 for “Improvements in Telegraphy.” Elisha Gray applies for a similar patent hours after Bell. Gray and Bell would fight for years in court as to who's telephone was "legal".

1877 Thomas Edison receives a patent in Britain for the “electro-motograph.” His carbon-based transmitter is still used in telephones today. First permanent outdoor telephone wire strung. Commercial telephone service begins in the United States.

1878 The workable exchange comes on line. It enables calls to be switched among any number of subscribers rather than requiring direct lines.

1879 Telephone subscribers began to be designated by numbers rather than names. This allows more subscribers per switching station.

1880s Long distance service was established and grew using metallic circuits.

1883 Thomas A. Edison discovers flow of electronics in a vacuum, called the "Edison effect," the foundation of the electronic tube.

1888 The common battery system, developed by Hammond V. Hayes, permitted a central battery to supply all telephones on an exchange.

1891 The first automatic dial system was patented by a Kansas City undertaker. Switchboard operators were no longer necessary to make a telephone call.

1894 Oliver Lodge demonstrates wireless communication over a distance of 150 yards. This is the beginnings of cell phone technology.

1900 The first coin telephone was installed in Hartford, Connecticut.

1906 Dr. Lee De Forest, began work on applying what was known as an “audion,” a three element vacuum tube, which could amplify radio waves, to telephony.

1911 American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T) took control of Western Union Telegraph Company. This is the beginning of "Ma Bell" which would be the largest telephone company in the US until the 1980's.

1913 The Bell System bought the rights to De Forest’s patents, which were used for long distance telephone service. First long-distance wire link was on the New York to San Francisco circuit using loading coils and repeaters.

1915 Bell System completes a U.S. transcontinental telephone line. Everyone in the US was connected to each other.

1918 Ten million Bell System telephones were in service. Edwin H. Armstrong invents the superheterodyne receiver circuit. Calls became clearer and faster.

1921 Automatic switching of large numbers of calls was made possible using “phantom circuits,” which allowed three telephone conversations to be conducted on two pairs of wires. More people could use the same circuit so telephone companies did not have to build more switching stations.

1927 The “French” phone, with the transmitter and receiver in a single handset, developed by the Bell System was released on a widespread basis. Harold Black develops the negative-feedback amplifier at Bell Laboratories. This made the telephone signal less distorted.

1927 Transatlantic service from New York to London became operational, transmitted by radio waves. Underwater cables were no longer necessary.

1931 Teletypewritter service is initated. This machine sends printed type, like a typewriter, across telephone lines to be printed out on the other end. This is the beginnings of facsimile machines and also lets the deaf use the telephone.

1936 Research on electronic telephone exchanges began in Bell Labs and was ultimately perfected in the 1960s with AT&T’s Electronic Switching System (ESS).

1946 First commercial mobile telephone service put into service in 1946, linking moving vehicles to the telephone network by radio.

1946 Transmission via coaxial cables was accomplished. This wire has a center wire and insulation all around and reduces radio wave interference.

1947 Microwave radio transmission was used for long-distance telephony. The transistor, a key to modern electronics, was invented at Bell Labs by a team consisting of William Schockley, Walter Brattain, and John Bardeen.

1950s Microwave telephone and communication links are further developed.

1950 Time-division multiplexing is applied to telephony. People were now charged by the minute for their telephone calls.

1953 The laying of transatlantic telephone cables began. Calls could be made to European countries.

1958 All Number Calling (ANC) instituted to handle consumer demands for individual telephone numbers. A possible 9,999,999 numbers available.

1960s Videophones became more affordable and practical. People could now see who they were talking to.

1962 Telstar, the world’s first international communications satellite, was rocketed into orbit on July 10 with the collaboration between NASA and the Bell System. Telephone calls could now be "bounced" off a satellite to a switching station.

1963 Bell System introduces the touch tone phone. This telephone made a different beep for each number instead of counted clicks for each number.

1964 The electronic telephone switching system is placed into service. Calls are switched faster than before.

1965 The first commercial communications satilite, Early bird, is placed into service.

1966 K.C. Kao and G.A. Hockham publish the principles of fiber optic communications. This cable uses glass to send a light beam that carries thousands of calls.

1971 Intel Corporation develops the first single chip microprocesser, the 4004. The microprocessor would make telephones and switching systems smaller, lighter and faster to use.

1972 Motorola demonstrates the cellular telephone to the FCC. People could call each other without wires.

1980 Bell System FT3 fiber optic communication is developed.

1981 IBM PC is introduced. The Internet would use the telephone lines in the future to transmit information through a personal computer.

1982 AT&T agrees to breakup its Bell System telephone companies. "Ma Bell" becomes a bunch of "Baby Bells".

1985 FAX machines become popular. A printed sheet of paper can be sent across telephone lines and received whole on the other end.

1989 "Pocket" cellular telephone is introduced by Motorola.

1990's Digital signal processing of all telecommunication equipment (including ISDNs and HDTV) A television can now be used as a television, telephone, computer and video game center all in one place.