The prediction, in brief:

It will be five to 10 years before most calls are combining voice and data. If you are using a browser, there ought to be a talk-to-me button. You should be instantly in contact with an attendant who’s looking at the same screen you are. The access services we’re providing will become front ends to traditional telephony services, so computers may be used to do call set-up for a voice conference, followed by a voice call.

Predictor: Evslin, Tom

Prediction, in context:

In a 1995 article for InfoWorld, Michael Parsons interviews Tom Evslin, AT&T’s vice president of gateway services. According to Evslin, formerly of Microsoft, telephony and data communications will merge and multimedia phone calls will be the standard. Following is an excerpt of the conversation:Q: “Will the worlds of telephony and data communications eventually merge?” A: “Yes, they will merge. We used to think there were two networks. If you were somehow listening to the voice network today, you would hear the growl of fax as often as voice, and there are voice packets on data networks. Multimedia phone calls will be the standard, and we’ll think of voice and data calls as the degenerate calls. But I’m sure it will be five to 10 years before most calls are combining voice and data. If you are using a browser, there ought to be a talk-to-me button. You should be instantly in contact with an attendant who’s looking at the same screen you are. The access services we’re providing will become front ends to traditional telephony services, so computers may be used to do call set-up for a voice conference, followed by a voice call.”

Date of prediction: October 1, 1995

Topic of prediction: Communication

Subtopic: Internet Telephony

Name of publication: InfoWorld

Title, headline, chapter name: Getting on the Internet at last

Quote Type: Direct quote

Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?Did=000000008661108&Fmt=3&Deli=1&Mtd=1&Idx=1&Sid=2&RQT=309

This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Garrison, Betty