During the late nineteen nineties, a large build out in fiber optic and cable infrastructure was undertaken in order to accommodate the dot-com bandwidth frenzy that was expected to come from the dot-com boom. That build out was instrumental in the birth of VoIP: so much unused bandwidth elicited an appetite to put it to work in service of phone callers, and VoIP went mainstream for very large companies.

Yet for most of its short history, VoIP technology relied on the conventional PSTN network for calls made outside of a network’s PBX. Consequently, providers of internet phone systems had to pay their toll to the phone company, and pass along at least some of that cost to the businesses they serviced. Recent VoIP history is marked by a few significant changes that mark the beginning of a new era of VoIP deployment and adoption, rather than a final step in its maturation.

First, as broadband access has become more democratic, there is more infrastructure to absorb demand for cheaper calling through VoIP. The popularity of cable internet, and lower bandwidth T-lines, in particular, has made employing VoIP a possibility for small businesses and even residences whereas, in the past, the bandwidth to implement the solution simply didn’t exist. This alone is all well, but when considering the effect of incorporating other technology into the equation, one can’t help but think that the phone companys’ days in the land line business are numbered.

Simply put, new technology allows users of internet phone systems to almost completely bypass the PSTN network when talking to each other. This is because the PSTN network is utilized mainly for only first and last mile connectivity to and from internet infrastructure. This trend threatens the pricing power of PSTN administrators and lower costs even further for users of VoIP.

While PSTN is not going to disappear any time soon, the commoditization of bandwidth along with the use of new technology to transmit voice over IP is slowly eroding the need to use that infrastructure and will make adopting VOIP cheaper and more attractive – a trend that will perpetuate itself. As more users realize the savings of VOIP, more solutions will be adopted to circumnavigate the PSTN network for the transmission of voice data.