Before the Dawn of IP Telephony - Part 29Thinking of the broadband generation (fall 2002)
These contents translated a serialization article carried by ITPro IP telephony ONLINE published by Nikkei Business Publications, Inc. Jump to the original (Japanese).
Shinji Usuba
General Manager
eSound Venture Unit
Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd
The development of the indoor device for telecommunication carriers was finally finished. The widespread deployment of broadband was starting and we were examining the business opportunities.
Photo 1: OKI's VoIP product group roadmap for latter half of 2002
After overcoming some technical troubles including the measure concerning the weakness discovered in the new device, the development of IP telephone devices for telecommunication carriers further accelerated in October 2002 (photo 1). It was about this time when I had no doubts that full IP and full broadband would reach the homes of subscribers in the not- too-distant future.
What will be created and what events will occur once incomparable speed is provided to the homes of subscribers? Is it our only job to keep developments going? Such thoughts ran through my head while staring at the indoor device that had reached shipment after all the efforts in the summer heat.
The world in general had not yet realized the true potential of VoIP. But I was certain of its capabilities. I wanted to maximize and expose such hidden potential. I was certain that there had to be a new VoIP technology more suitable for the broadband generation. Although there was an increase in the market performance with the shipment of indoor devices for telecommunication carriers doing well, I was beginning to feel frustrated as a developer.
I found out that Hiromi Aoyagi, who was in charge of signal processing at the time, was feeling the same, and my desire to establish a new technical direction grew even stronger. Hiromi and I pondered this idea during late hours of weekdays and on holidays. Although the project team was busier than ever, the members including Keiichi Busujima were able to participate since the project was self-directed. As a result, we came up with two hypotheses.
Giant switching equipment using "Gnutella"
The first is the "hypothesis of giant switching equipment using 'Gnutella'"
At the time "Napster" and "Gnutella" were among the popular topics as file sharing technologies. We focused our attention on Gnutella, which used a more genuine P2P (Peer-to-Peer) technology. We were pondering the idea of seamlessly creating a large system by connecting smaller systems on broadband lines in a form of a loop since hardly any time is taken for communication as networks reach enormous high speeds even when systems are connected serially.
When the speed of networks become faster, structures of terminals also change. Users can simply obtain information needed at the time needed. They will no longer need to store and carry around information-including video and audio-in information devices. Since individual processors with low capability will be able to utilize major power when connected to a high-speed network, a large storage capacity will no longer be necessary for individual terminals. Users simply obtain the data from the network at the time needed. Our first hypothesis was that information terminals would function sufficiently in such networks if built with an interface for broadband communication, input and output terminals for video and audio, and a small memory.
Improved communication quality
The second is the "hypothesis of improved communication quality." More than a century has passed since the telephone was invented. And it has played a major role as a tool allowing parties at remote distances to communicate in real time. However, the state has remained virtually unchanged for more than a century. Couldn't the voice quality of telephones be improved?
High-grade telephones surfaced during the age of ISDN, but I knew it would never become popular. The idea may have been good, but it could not be realized due to drawbacks caused by the environment and technologies of the time. But at the present, such drawbacks no longer existed and the environment and technologies have advanced enormously. Taking this to our advantage, there is a great possibility of success.
During 1995, voice packet technology was considered useless in the communication industry. But VoIP bloomed with improvements in CPU performance and progress in encoding technologies. So why didn't high-grade telephones in the ISDN age become popular? Was it because the voice quality didn't change even when expanding the voice range? Or were there network problems?
Then one day, it suddenly occurred to me when I was talking on the phone with my daughter, who was in kindergarten at the time. Her voice on the phone sounded totally different from her real voice.
Perhaps the voice quality of telephones was not sufficient. And that the world was unaware of its poor quality.
If that was the case, we could create a more natural and enjoyable world of communication if the obstacles can be cleared. I thought that increasing the appeal for communication with better voice quality would lead to more opportunities for communication at homes and at work, resulting in the creation of a new value.
Based on the two hypotheses, we decided to experiment with a new, unknown product.
Since trial production based on hypotheses usually meant extreme costs, we became busy looking for an in-house sponsor to acquire a budget. For the second hypothesis, we were able to make verification rather quickly. And the opportunity came from an unexpected place.
... To be continued
