Once upon a time, the public switched telephone system was primarily used for voice traffic with a little bit of data traffic here and there. But the data traffic grew and grew, and by 1999, the number of data bits moved equaled the number of voice bits (since voice is in PCM on the trunks, it can be measured in bits/sec).
By 2002, the volume of data traffic was an order of magnitude more than the volume of voice traffic and still growing exponentially, with voice traffic being almost flat (5% growth per year).
As a consequence of these numbers, many packet-switching network operators suddenly became interested in carrying voice over their data networks. The amount of additional bandwidth required for voice is minuscule since the packet networks are dimensioned for the data traffic. However, the average person’s phone bill is probably larger than his Internet bill, so the data network operators saw Internet telephony as a way to earn a large amount of additional money without having to put any new fiber in the ground. Thus Internet telephony (also known as voice over IP), was born.
