About VoIP

Internet Voice, also known as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), is a technology that allows you to make telephone calls using a broadband Internet connection instead of a regular (or analog) phone line. Some services using VoIP may only allow you to call other people using the same service, but others may allow you to call anyone who has a telephone number - including local, long distance, mobile, and international numbers. Also, while some services only work over your computer or a special VoIP phone, other services allow you to use a traditional phone through an adaptor.

VoIP allows you to make telephone calls using a computer network, over a data network like the Internet. VoIP converts the voice signal from your telephone into a digital signal that travels over the internet then converts it back at the other end so you can speak to anyone with a regular phone number. When placing a VoIP call using a phone with an adapter, you’ll hear a dial tone and dial just as you always have. VoIP may also allow you to make a call directly from a computer using a conventional telephone or a microphone.

VoIP lets you make toll-free long distance voice and fax calls over existing IP data networks instead of the public switched telephone network (PSTN). Today businesses that implement their own VoIP solution can dramatically cut long distance costs between two or more locations.

Let’s go back to see the history: For the past 100 years people have relied on the PSTN for voice communication. During a call between two locations, the line is dedicated to the two parties that are using it. No other information can travel over the line, although there is often plenty of bandwidth available.

Later, as data communications emerged, companies paid for separate data lines so their computers could share information, while voice and fax communications were still handled by the PSTN.

But this is no longer a problem now as today, with the rapid adoption of IP, we now have a far reaching, low-cost transport mechanism that can support both voice and data. A VoIP solution integrates seamlessly into the data network and operates alongside existing PBXs, or other phone equipment, to simply extend voice capabilities to remote locations. The voice traffic essentially “rides for free” on top of the data network using the IP infrastructure and hardware already in place.