If you’re new to the whole VoIP concept, the first thing you’re probably going to ask is “What exactly is it?”
Well, VoIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol, and it’s a broad family of technologies designed to, well, to send voice data over the Internet. In other words, the “VoIP” family of technology is essentially anything that allows you to make a call over the Internet rather than through traditional telephone lines (landlines) or cell phones.
The basic concept has been around for awhile but has only (relatively) recently really picked up, for obvious reasons. Chief among them being high speed Internet.
In the past, VoIP was little more than a novelty, something that you maybe saw in movies about Wall Street. Today, it’s becoming much more mainstream, and much more useful, thanks to lightning fast Ethernet and Internet service providers.
Besides the simple fact that more information can be transmitted more quickly with high speed Internet, dial-up made it all but impossible to both communicate on VoIP while loading up a web page or sending documents. But of course, with DSL, you can easily do both at once.
Besides which, there was little point in using VoIP phone service in an era where your primary phone line was your only source of internet in the first place.
“So what’s the point in the cell phone age?”
Good question! If VoIP was little more than a way to talk to other people, it’d be sort of limited in usefulness now that everyone is carrying a cell phone more powerful than nineties era PCs. So why bother?
Well, there are certain developments being made in VoIP that are clearly useful for pretty much anyone with a home computer…
Multiple Calls
Over broadband, you can make several calls through a single line. Even today, in the Twenty First Century, you still need multiple phone lines to send out more than a single phone call at a time.
Security
VoIP uses Secure Realtime Transport Protocol, which makes VoIP automatically safer than traditional phone lines.
Integration
VoIP is currently being integrated deeper and deeper into the user’s web experience, allowing the phone call to be used in conjunction with video chat, data and file exchange, audio and video conferencing and address book management, TV, making VoIP very practical, very versatile, and very convenient.
Calling Features
VoIP service is loaded with included features like caller ID, call waiting, 3-way calling, caller ID block, and more. Around 25-30 features is available with providers like Vonage for example.
It may still be a few years off before VoIP replaces most of traditional telephone lines, but great strides are being made.
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