Future of VoIP

Snow.bros

Hi all,

I am planning on my next career path so I am considering on specializing in certain technologies like VOIP, security, virtualization, routing and switching or wireless technologies.

I am interested particularly in Cisco products so I have been battling between the choice of specializing in VoIP or wireless technology. I finally made up my mind that I will go for VoIP but I am concerned about the future of VoIP in the next 10 years or more seeing that products like 3CX can integrate into your mobile phone through the app and onto your desktop which to me suggest that normal desk phone will eventually fall away in the future.

So I wanted to find out from other TE members who are in this field or members who can predict where the future of VoIP is heading and if it will be a secured career going forward.

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this.

EANx

VoIP is simply audio turned into data packets with a set of circuit requirements that normal data doesn't have. When I think of a VoIP engineer, I think of two things, someone who specializes in a PBX as well as someone who understands data quality of service. It doesn't really matter what product is being used, if the packets arrive all jumbled up, the conversation isn't going to be useful. While there are several products available for specialization, the networking knowledge required for them is going to be roughly the same, as will all of the telephony-specific requirements that new buildings have, with some of them being life-safety related. For instance, parking garages will often have a few emergency phones scattered about. If someone is having a heart attack and you mis-programmed the location, they could die before help arrives, leaving the firm liable.

I remember Cisco offering a "soft phone", one that you could access on your laptop after VPNing into the corporate network almost 20 years ago, and yet we still have desk phones. So rumors of the desk phone's demise might be overstated.