In 1999 I used a card catalog at my rural library to get an encyclopedia from 1989.
Just today I used my cell phone to call my friend who is quite literally halfway around the world and had a real time video chat with her. This happened in 14 years.
I'm not sure that's a particularly inspiring example of technology progress.
In 1999 video conferencing over the Internet was already a reality, though it was very low quality. I know we tried it in work around that time. Skype launched in 2003 and basically solved that problem.
So in the next 11 years the main development was in wireless networking, which was basically a refinement of military datalinks which had been in service at least since the AN/ARR-39 of 1956.
You might as well write the whole lot off as a glorified telegram, if that's the stance you're going to take.
In reality, quantitative parameters - cost, performance, reliability, usability - matter more than 'the first X'.
Or video communications (FaceTime/Skype) with the telegraph and telephone. The development of telephone goes back as far as the bike/car so I'd posit that communications technology grew at about the same pace.