Voices, I hear voices

The issues related to reconciling the clash between the telephony and the computing in computer networks are discussed. The advent of PCs and the general availability of relatively low-cost modems popularized by bulletin board systems (BBS) helped a new generation of computer users explore the confines of both their own computers and the vast technological world that lay at the end of the phone line. The use of the private branch exchange (PBX) by government agencies and research, education, and businesses organizations implied the deployment of telephony equipment, owned and operated by Public switched telephone network (PSTN) customers. The addition of IP-capable interfaces for management of PBX and central office switching equipment helped the IP protocol suite's adoption for telecommunications infrastructure that remained isolated from data networks. The adoption of open protocols helped make interoperation possible with many implementations that were running on low-cost hardware and rapidly evolving software.