VoIP Phones

If you regularly make long-distance phone calls, chances are you’ve already used VoIP Phones without even knowing it. IP telephony, known in the industry as VoIP Phones is the transmission of telephone calls over a data network like one of the many networks that make up the Internet. While you probably have heard of VoIP, what you may not know is that many traditional telephone companies are already using it in the connections between their regional offices.

Net chat could soon mean just that - talking instead of typing text into an e-mail or instant message using these VoIP Phones.

This is because the net is rapidly replacing telephone networks as the preferred route for phone calls, thanks to a formidably-named technology known as voice-over IP - internet protocol - or VoIP Phones.

In VoIP Phones, VoIP converts phone conversations into packets of data to be transmitted down the same wires used to browse the net, send e-mails and swap music. The system of VoIP Phones makes phone calls very cheap, as all you pay is the local charge to connect to your net service provider. Thus a call to a friend down the road costs the same as a chat with an aunt on the other side of the world.

It’s no wonder that analysts are confused, because their chief information sources–the companies selling VoIP Phones –are maddeningly inconsistent in how they report their successes or failures.

Cisco Systems is among those companies that suggest measuring just the number of VoIP Phones that have been shipped. Its market share is staggering in that regard; it has shipped a total of 2 million VoIP Phones –more than its competitors combined.

Other companies, like Avaya, measure their success based on the total number of phone lines shipped. Cisco says that creates an over-inflated number, because companies don’t often max out their VoIP deployments in VoIP Phones.

And along comes this twist from Psytechnics researchers, who queried 185 VoIP-using companies. They found that nearly 95 percent have not appropriately measured the voice quality of their VoIP networks in their VoIP Phones. Those that are keeping track are using an antiquated method that isn’t appropriate, the survey found.

So that means that there’s no real hard data about voice quality on which businesses can base their decisions, according to Psytechnics, one thing is clear that VoIP Phones are bound to get popularity due to cost competitiveness.