VOIP Information

VoIP Overview


Since we're using computers all the time to do our work, let's make it easy and add the phone to the pile. VoIP also known as (voice over Internet protocol), Internet telephony, IP telephony, and Internet voice is catching on and is expected to grow in the next few years. The technology has been around for about a decade, but it isn't till now that we have the supporting technology to handle it and an market reaching critical mass (hate using jargon, but there isn't a better way to say it).

VoIP requires users to have broadband connections. With 22 percent of Americans connected to the Internet by broadband, the numbers are large enough for making money with Internet voice and big telecoms are already in the game.

How VoIP works

VoIP works like email. TCP/IP networks consist of IP packets with a header for controlling communication and information for transportating data. VoIP uses the IP packets to send the human voice across the Internet using IP packets to its destination.

It digitizes a voice into data packets, sends them through the network and converts them back to voice when arriving at the destination. Digital format can be compressed, routed, and converted to other and better formats.

When calling someone using VoIP, you use a phone with an adapter. Just like we use a telephone to make phone calls on POTS (plain old telephone service), the adapter is a device to connect the phone to the network. The VoIP phone has its own phone number for callers to dial.

The good and bad things

An advantage of VoIP is it can avoid charges typically found on PSTNs (public switched telephone network). For customers, there is less worry about how long or how often they make phone calls. Calling another state costs the same as calling another country even on the other side of the world. IP-based boxes are cheaper than analog PBXes.

However, service reliability is an issue. How many times has a download or connecting to a Web site faltered? That may not be such a big deal, but it is more disruptive to phone calls. Network issues are complicated by customers getting broadband from one company and VoIP from another. When a call gets switched from network to network, it impacts quality.

When the Internet is down, so is VoIP. Traditional phones aren't affected by power like VoIP since they have its own power and work during blackouts.

Money and regs

Companies make their money by selling features and services. Connect anytime and anywhere there is an Internet connection or while in Wi-Fi-enabled hot spots. It's also exempt from traditional regulations and taxes, but that could change tomorrow though telecoms are working to keep it unregulated. This exemption is keeping prices down, and current prices are anywhere from $20 to $65 a month.

Meryl K. Evans is the Content Maven behind meryl's notes, eNewsletter Journal, and The Remediator Security Digest. She is also a PC Today columnist and a tour guide at InformIT. She is geared to tackle your editing, writing, content, and process needs. The native Texan resides in Plano, Texas, a heartbeat north of Dallas, and doesn't wear a 10-gallon hat or cowboy boots.


MORE RESOURCES:

The Future of VoIP: Where Can it Take You?
CNNMoney.com - 20 hours ago
Several years ago, VoIP was one of the hottest and most hyped technologies in the communications industry. Today, with approximately 30 percent(2) of all ...
Verizon Business exports key VoIP services around the globe FierceVoIP
Verizon Business to Drive Global IP Network for Daimler AG MarketWatch
all 55 news articles


The CounterPath Softphone Experience Now Integrated with Microsoft ...
MarketWatch - 15 hours ago
a leading provider of innovative desktop and mobile VoIP software products and solutions, today announced the launch of Bria for Microsoft Outlook(R). ...
Natural Convergence and CounterPath deliver new USB-based phone Ottawa Business Journal
CounterPath Launches VoIP Softphone for Outlook Enterprise VoIP Planet
Natural Convergence Partners With CounterPath to Introduce USB ... MarketWatch
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Free VoIP Calls: Make Free International Phone Calls
ITworld.com, MA - 1 hour ago
by Nisha Garg Free VoIP calls allow people to reinvent the telephony service in a special way. Now, people can forward calls to any place of the world ...


ARC and Hellosoft Offer a VoIP Solution That Doubles the Channel ...
MarketWatch - Dec 3, 2008
"We chose Hellosoft's highly optimized, VoIP software solution, because it delivers excellent voice quality while requiring less processing power on our ...


Ingate Partners With Codima to Enable Successful VoIP Installations
MarketWatch - 14 hours ago
Ingate and Codima will create a vertical offering to provide SIP-based VoIP pre-assessment and post-deployment tools from Codima Toolbox combined with ...


Cheap VoIP calls: Access Calls at Unbelievable Rates
ITworld.com, MA - Dec 3, 2008
With this high-end technology, the users can easily access cheap VoIP calls without any hassles. This in turn helps the users to save huge amount of money ...


TMCnet

8x8 Places Renewed Emphasis on Cost Benefits of VoIP
TMCnet - 5 hours ago
By Erik Linask When VoIP adoption hit the mainstream markets — both business and consumer — the primary focus was on the cost savings offered by migrating ...
VegaStream and pbxsnip Debut Survivability Solution TMCnet
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Reuters

In the News: No Clearwire VoIP Soon, 8x8 Prices for the Downturn
VoIP-News, CA - 9 hours ago
The demise of EQO and the launch of LightEdge SIP trunking also made headlines this week. by Robert Poe | December 4, 2008 Clearwire Corp. and Sprint Nextel ...
Clearwire's 100-Day Agenda: Devices, VoIP and Roaming TMC Net
Update on Mobile WiMAX - Is it really mobile? Part I, US Deployments WiMax.com
GigaOM Interview With Clearwire CEO Ben Wolff GigaOm
Datamation - The Viodi View
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Turn your iPod touch into a VoIP phone with Truphone
ZDNet Blogs - 16 hours ago
I’ve talked about the Truphone VoIP solution here on this blog a couple of times in the past and have had it on my iPhone for several months. ...
iPod touch gets VoIP, steals some iPhone thunder ZDNet Blogs
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Streamcore Guarantees Success of Large VoIP Deployments, Offers ...
MarketWatch - Dec 3, 2008
Streamcore solutions are already widely used by enterprises to guarantee VoIP performance by automatically prioritizing VoIP flows competing with other ...

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