By: Todd Cardin
When I opened Todd Cardin
Answering Service twenty years ago there were not a lot of options in phone service. Today there
are so many options and choices in telephony that it is mind boggling. It is confusing living with
so many choices. Even those of us in the telecommunications industry find it impossible to keep up
with everything. This is especially true for voice over IP. There are so many emerging companies,
all with what seem to be competitive pricing, and all making the came promises of reliability and
stability of a virtually new technology. The question arises, is the average consumer educated
enough to make a decision about a product they know nothing about?
Many people hear the term Voice
over IP or broadband telephone service and still are not sure what that means. VoIP stands for
Voice over Internet Protocol. Using VoIP, voice information is converted into digital packets and
sent over the Internet, and then converted back into analog signals before reaching the phone
receiver at the other end. Pre-requisites for this service include VoIP equipment, a service
provider, and a broadband internet connection. This is a growing and new technology which will
surely expand as the number of broadband connections increase.
There are two types of VoIP
service. The first is called hardware based VoIP. People using this type of VoIP phone services,
have their phone fitted with an adapter that will connect to a high-speed Internet connection. When
a call is made, it goes through your local telephone company to the VoIP provider, and then over
the Internet to the other parties telephone .The second type is software based VoIP phone services,
where you use a microphone headset plugged into your computer and make calls, which are routed
through your cable modem, by using the keyboard. VoIP can also be run over a private data network.
Many companies, the most popular being Skype, offer the latter service free. Two parties need only
to be running the Skype software on their machines. The former mentioned “hardware based” solution
does not require both parties to have VoIP service. A VoIP customer can place a call to a
traditional phone service customer & vice versa.
The big advantage of VoIP is
that voice information sent over the Internet avoids using the fixed circuitry of traditional
telephony networks – avoiding the tolls charged by traditional telephone service. This advantage is
reflected in the price of the service. Most companies offer competitive fees ranging from 14.99 per
month to 24.99 per month for unlimited telephone minutes to anywhere in the U.S or Puerto Rico and
astronomically low international rates usually hovering around 5 cents per minute.
The big disadvantage of VoIP is
quality of service. While in theory because packets are sent over the best route at the time rather
than through fixed routes, VoIP services would be reliable and consistent, in reality problems such
as packet loss, bandwidth and plain old Internet outages make VoIP quality and reliability
inconsistent. Keep in mind the internet itself is a fairly new commodity. As network enhancements
and overall stability increase the reliability of applications such as VoIP service, quality of
such applications will surely increase.
VoIP is the future of telephony
and the quality and reliability will improve and the industry will explode even further. However,
it is a relatively new technology and can only grow as the strength, speed, and stability of the
internet evolve. If you were the first kid on the block to purchase a DVD player, a VHS recorder,
or a BETA player, I would recommend following your life’s trend and going for a broadband telephony
solution. The more conservative consumer would likely wait a year or two before making a purchase
while letting the technology progress through a natural evolution. Either purchase decision you
make, rest assured that this technology is not fly by night and is here to stay.
Article source: http://www.articlecube.com/Article/Defining-VoIP/5527
