Voice over Internet Protocol or VoIP is also referred to as VoIP phones, Internet Phone, Digital Phone or Broadband Phone service and is a way of making regular phone calls over a Broadband High Speed Internet connection in-place of a regular telephone line. There are no unexplained service charges or taxes or expensive monthly fees with VoIP and so many salient features come standard. Unlimited long distance and local calling can be yours for just $199 per year. For many VoIP phones user, this represents yearly savings of over $500. Get to know VoIP more by visiting http://www.what-is-voip.net.
You just dial a number from your regular phone and talk just like you would with a traditional phone service. It does not depend that whether the person you are calling has a VoIP phone or a traditional phone service because this is all taken care of by your VoIP provider.
You need an Analog Telephone Adaptor to make a VoIP phone call the only additional piece of equipment, which is often called ATA or gizmo. Your VoIP Service Providers supplies this when you sign up for this service and it allows you to make phone calls using your regular telephone.
A Broadband High Speed Internet Service is the only need for this technology like Cable or DSL, since VoIP service relies on a High Speed Internet connection to work correctly.
From small and home offices, Businesses through to large corporations are moving away from regular circuit switched telephone lines to VoIP telephony. Businesses are finding that their monthly telephony costs are minimizing by well over 30% in most cases with a VoIP system.
One of the reasons that why VoIP service is so compelling to Businesses is that all of their telephony requirements are met by just expanding their Internet data bandwidth needs by a small percentage.
One VoIP call takes less than 90Kbps of bandwidth which is usually a small overhead on top of businesses data requirements.
Businesses send all of their information over their Broadband Internet connection simply whether it be Internet data from PCs or voice calls from their employees. It all shares the same pipe, which could be Cable High Speed connection or DSL for Small Offices or T1/T3 cables for medium to larger sized businesses. Expensive PBX is not needed and moving or adding voice lines is a trivial task.
With ever-changing technology, VoIP has developed rapidly to the point where we can now achieve what twenty years ago was only science fiction-we can speak to people almost anywhere in the world and not only get a clear voice connection but can actually see who we are speaking with! Grandparents can see their grandchildren, fathers and mothers on business travels can see their children while they catch up on the latest news and business meetings no longer involve expensive travel. All this is thanks to a small start-up company that had a vision of using computers to enhance communications and the courage and determination to make such a concept reality.
There are actually a few different types of calls that can be made here. These telephone calls can either be placed to other VoIP devices, or to normal telephones on the PSTN. There are three methods that you can use to connect to a VoIP network and this makes it incredibly easy and convenient to get started if you want to make the switch: using a VoIP telephone, using a normal telephone with a VoIP adapter, and using a computer with speakers and a microphone.