Title: A Taxonomy of Internet Telephony Applications

David Clark, MIT
& Bill Lehr, Columbia

Abstract:

The term "Internet Telephony" has generated great interest,
excitment and even fear in different sectors of the communications
industry. That reaction begs the question of what Internet Telephony
actually is. In fact, there are a wide range of activities that
fall under that term, activities that differ greatly in their
functional objective, business and regulatory implications, and
time-frame for deployment. Unless this range of options is fully
appreciated, discussiona about Internet Telephony can easily lead
to misunderstanding. This paper attempts to describe the
range of activities called Internet Telephony. It identifies a
number of characteristics that can be used to distinguish these
activities, and illustrates these using a number of specific
examples. Some examples fold Internet technology into the current
telephone paradigm, while others involve using unique Internet
capabiliites to develop new models of human communication. The
paper describes a possible end-point of this evolution, which has
significant implications for industry structure and the nature of
the service perceived by the end user. While the short-term
implications of Internet Telephony are perhaps less than the hype
would suggest, the long-term implications are profound.