Although cable-delivered voice services are a relatively recent phenomenon, its origins go back at least 15 years. In 1992, for instance, the industry was dabbling in Personal Communications Services (PCS, an early wireless telephony play) to the point of getting FCC permission to build a PCS test lab in CableLabs' Boulder headquarters.
Meanwhile, IP-based services, starting with broadband Internet, were beginning to proliferate. And, in '97, the move to deliver voice services over Internet Protocol was established via the formation of PacketCable, a specification line that would start the industry on a track to leverage the momentum and reach of IP services.
By the end of the century, cable operators served about 500,000 telephony customers, most of them circuit switched. PacketCable 1.0 had just been publicly released, as a finished suite of specifications. It was anchored on the DOCSIS 1.1 specifications, as a baseline IP standard. Three interoperability tests had shown progress for voice products from 11 suppliers, making products including multimedia terminal adaptors (MTAs), call agents, and test equipment.
The first residential voice/VOIP devices were certified in December of 2002—multimedia terminal adapters from Arris and Toshiba.
By 2004, CableLabs member companies were increasingly comfortable with VoIP launches, instead of continuing with circuit switched telephony. Michael Willner, CEO of Insight Communications, put it this way, in May of '04: "We now believe that IP phone is capable of replacing primary line phone service - which we weren't sure of a year ago."
In the middle of the 2000s, the main story in VoIP and PacketCable was the continuing stream of product certifications by the supplier community.
Additions to PacketCable were in full swing, too, including an RFI in '05 for voice-over-IP peering techniques, which would help MSOs to interconnect their IP backbones and interexchange voice traffic without their traffic ever riding on the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN).
The industry, via PacketCable, also worked closely with the FBI to support CALEA (Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act). In a time of disposable cell phones and increased methods of IP communications, it was increasingly difficult for law enforcement officials to "wire tap" suspects; CALEA helped in that effort.
By 2006, cable-delivered VoIP was poised to become the third and most important leg of the cable "triple play." Tony Werner, then CTO of Liberty Global, called VoIP "our most valuable player of the year this year."
By the end of 2007, more than 15 million U.S. customers would sign up for cable-delivered voice service. And, because of the inherent flexibilities of IP-delivered services, cable-delivered voice was poised to become more of an application than a service, able to be blended into other services, as well. Experiments with caller ID on TV, for instance, resonated well with customers. PacketCable began to evolve toward multi-platform services, as a way to "break down the silos" of voice, video and data, and find ways to blend applications with services.
By the end of the century, cable operators served about 500,000 telephony customers, most of them circuit switched. PacketCable 1.0 had just been publicly released, as a finished suite of specifications. It was anchored on the DOCSIS 1.1 specifications, as a baseline IP standard. Three interoperability tests had shown progress for voice products from 11 suppliers, making products including multimedia terminal adaptors (MTAs), call agents, and test equipment.
The first residential voice/VOIP devices were certified in December of 2002—multimedia terminal adapters from Arris and Toshiba.
By 2004, CableLabs member companies were increasingly comfortable with VoIP launches, instead of continuing with circuit switched telephony. Michael Willner, CEO of Insight Communications, put it this way, in May of '04: "We now believe that IP phone is capable of replacing primary line phone service - which we weren't sure of a year ago."
In the middle of the 2000s, the main story in VoIP and PacketCable was the continuing stream of product certifications by the supplier community.
Additions to PacketCable were in full swing, too, including an RFI in '05 for voice-over-IP peering techniques, which would help MSOs to interconnect their IP backbones and interexchange voice traffic without their traffic ever riding on the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN).
The industry, via PacketCable, also worked closely with the FBI to support CALEA (Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act). In a time of disposable cell phones and increased methods of IP communications, it was increasingly difficult for law enforcement officials to "wire tap" suspects; CALEA helped in that effort.
By 2006, cable-delivered VoIP was poised to become the third and most important leg of the cable "triple play." Tony Werner, then CTO of Liberty Global, called VoIP "our most valuable player of the year this year."
By the end of 2007, more than 15 million U.S. customers would sign up for cable-delivered voice service. And, because of the inherent flexibilities of IP-delivered services, cable-delivered voice was poised to become more of an application than a service, able to be blended into other services, as well. Experiments with caller ID on TV, for instance, resonated well with customers. PacketCable began to evolve toward multi-platform services, as a way to "break down the silos" of voice, video and data, and find ways to blend applications with services.
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1992: CableLabs commissions consulting firm Arthur D. Little to research personal communications services (PCS). The Federal Communications Commission authorizes CableLabs to build a PCS (Personal Communication Services) wireless telephony test bed, in downtown Boulder. At the time, participants thought PCS might become cable's first digital offering.
February 1993: CableLabs Board of Directors and its Telecom Subcommittee chaired by Mark Coblitz of Comcast concludes that research should be done into wired telephony and other potential telecom services in addition to PCS. CableLabs also hosted a PCS conference in Boulder, and issued an RFP on PCS technology.
January 1994: CableLabs issues RFI seeking input on various aspects of telephony, high-speed data, and "video telephone" services. Shortly thereafter, a meeting was held with 60+ supplier companies, many new to cable. That summer, an RFP is issued for telecom services.
July 1994: CableLabs issues $2 billion RFP on cable telephony signaling the cable industry's interest in achieving interoperable interactive cable networks. January 1996: An expanded web initiative aimed at facilitating a major cable industry presence on the Internet is announced as a strategic priority for CableLabs.
September 1996: Five vendors - Com 21, General Instrument, Hewlett-Packard, LANcity and Motorola - are chosen as "vendor authors" for the high-speed data specifications that became DOCSIS (Data over Cable Service Interface Specification). December 1996: The name "DOCSIS," for "Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification," is adopted as a working project name. September 1997: PacketCable™ initiative is formed. Its purpose: To identify suppliers and participants in Internet Protocol technologies, initially focusing on voice and video telephony applications. Comcast's Mark Coblitz is selected as chair.
March 1998: International Telecommunications Union (ITU) approves DOCSIS modem standard.
October 1998: Royalty-free pool established for intellectual property rights used in the PacketCable interface specification. 3Com, 8x8, Bellcore, Broadcom, Cisco Systems, Com21, LANcity, Motorola, Netspeak, Transnexus, VideoServer, and VocalTec are the first vendors to join. By entering the pool, each company contributes a non-exclusive license for IP it contributed that is essential to PacketCable, and it simultaneously receives a license from the pool for the IP of all other signatories. June 1999: The first PacketCable interoperability tests are held, with voice products from 11 suppliers. Equipment tested for interoperability included multimedia terminal adaptors (MTAs), call agents, and test equipment. Three interoperability rounds are completed in 1999.
December 1999: PacketCable 1.0 publicly released as a finished suite of specifications. 2000: Partly because DOCSIS 1.1 was a pre-requisite for PacketCable services, the year was spent paving the way for a maelstrom of activity expected in 2001, as silicon and equipment based on DOCSIS 1.1 emerged as a baseline platform for PacketCable-based digital voice.
2000: Interoperability testing of PacketCable-based digital voice equipment is initiated. Tests included basic voice calls, multi-codec calls, and feature assessment and billing. November 2000: PacketCable 1.0 is released to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) for consideration as an international standard. What made it different - and better - than other VoIP efforts was its definition of an end-to-end architecture, from one home or business to another, and every point in between. December 2000: By year-end, interim specifications describe how a packet-based phone call traverses from one cable subscriber's home to another's - even if the two live in systems run by different cable providers. This is known in PacketCable parlance is "inter-domain" signaling. December 2002: First residential VoIP devices certified. Specifically, E-MTAs (Embedded Multimedia Terminal Adaptor) from Arris and Toshiba were certified, on the conclusion of certification wave #24.
May 2004: "We now believe that IP phone is capable of replacing primary line phone service - which we weren't sure of a year ago." --Michael Willner, Insight, speaking at the 2004 CableLabs Financial Investors Conference in New York City.
July 2004: RFP issued for voice-over-IP equipment, built for commercial applications. September 2004: The FBI lauds CableLabs® on its release of a technical specification known as the "PacketCable™ Electronic Surveillance Specification" which was developed to facilitate the cable industry's compliance with the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA).and meet the lawful access needs of federal, state and local law enforcement. November 2004: PacketCable certifications continue: a Cisco CMTS blade and a Motorola E-MTA, as part of certification wave 31. January 2005: CableLabs releases PacketCable 1.5 specifications.
November 2005: RFI issued for Voice-over-IP peering technologies, used to help cable operators interconnect their IP backbones and exchange voice traffic, which improves quality and lowers costs by bypassing the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). January 2006: PacketCable 1.5 specifications accepted by the ITU as an international standard.
April 2006: The specifications for PacketCable 2.0, enabling cross-platform applications and services, are issued. The first application for the PacketCable 2.0 platform, Residential SIP Telephony (RST), is also released. 2006: "VoIP is our most valuable player of the year this year." - Tony Werner, then-CTO of Liberty Global. April 2007: In order to accelerate availability of qualified DOCSIS 3.0 headend equipment, CableLabs establishes a three-tiered program for qualification of DOCSIS 3.0 cable modem termination systems (CMTS) consisting of Bronze, Silver, and Full. DOCSIS 3.0 modems have one level of certification that is representative of compliance with the full DOCSIS 3.0 specification.
April 2007: CableLabs® launches the PacketCable™ 2.0 Applications Lab, with the successful installation of an Ericsson IMS (Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem) core network, Cedar Point Voice Application Server, and SIP voice user endpoints. July 2007: Signaling progress in its advanced Internet Protocol initiative, CableLabs® has issued a Request for Information (RFI) to solicit responses from vendors regarding their PacketCable™ 2.0 product roadmaps. The RFI also seeks information regarding any IMS-based applications these suppliers are developing for the cable industry. April 2008: CableLabs completes second round of Residential SIP Telephony interoperability testing in the PacketCable Applications Lab, as the industry prepares for the first PacketCable 2.0 certification waves.
June 2008: Arris and Motorola receive PacketCable certification - the industry-first certification for devices that integrate DOCSIS 3.0 with the ability to deliver cable digital voice. |
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