What is VOIP?
VOIP, an acronym for “Voice Over Internet Protocol,” uses the Internet for telephone service rather than through traditional telephone lines. Voice conversations can be converted to a series of zeros and ones (which make them “digital”). Since the Internet uses digital signals, it's possible to use the Internet to send and receive voice conversations just like any other type of digital information.
Traditional phone calls.
When we talk on the phone, a microphone converts our voice to electrical signals, while the speaker converse the electrical signals into a sound so we can hear. People's voices vary in volume and pitch, and the microphones and speakers convert these qualities into an electrical signal called “analog,” since it varies continuously. There's another kind of signal that makes VOIP possible, and we'll get to that in a minute. While a microphone creates the signal, the speaker just does the opposite and converts the signal to sound.
Traditional telephone connections transmit and receive these signals over wires and switches that the telephone company owns and operates. When you dial a phone number, the number tells the telephone company how to connect your call and send the conversation. Since telephone companies connect to each other around the world, we have a global telephone network, with both wired telephones and wireless cellular telephones.
Digital voice technology
Unlike the continuous analog signal created from a microphone and speaker, a digital signal is made up of zeros and ones. An electrical circuit called an analog-to-digital converter takes the voice signal from the microphone and converts it into zeros and ones. A digital-to-analog converter does the opposite at the speaker end, converting the zeros and ones into an analog signal that a speaker can play.
Two things had to happen to make it possible to send and receive a live voice conversation using digital signals instead of analog. The quality and speed of converting the signals had to be comparable to traditional phone conversation, and the speed of the network had to be fast enough to send and receive the two sides of a conversation fast enough.
Improvements in electronics made the first part possible, so now we even have a small analog to digital converter in cellular phones. Faster Internet speeds made the communications side of this possible, and new devices made it possible to connect any phone to the Internet.
Connecting phones to the Internet
In order to connect a phone to the Internet, the phone needs have the capability to connect to the Internet, usually using an ethernet cable. VOIP phones have a built-in ethernet connection which connects to your home or office network, and for existing phones, there are converter boxes that have a standard telephone connector on one side, and an ethernet connector on the other. These adapters allow people to use their existing telephone equipment on the Internet.
Once your phone is connected to the Internet, a service is required which will connect your phone number back to the telephone network. Providing this service is where VOIP service companies come in, such as Vonage and Ooma, which provide connections from the Internet to the telephone networks around the world.
By using a VOIP service, the long-distance part of a phone call can be sent over the Internet, at a very low cost, and the phone call is only connected back to the local phone network in a location where the other number is located.
Saving money and increased options
As a result, VOIP can drastically reduce the cost of long-distance calls along with other types of calls that have traditionally been charged based on things like call-zones and minutes. VOIP has allowed many companies to enter the business of providing telephone service including cable television providers and VOIP services like Vonage and Ooma.
VOIP has become increasingly higher in demand in the past few years as it is much lower in cost than traditional telephone networks. Having a VOIP telephone line means that the user can place and answer phone calls through the Internet rather than rely on the telephone company provided line. Those who choose to have a VOIP service usually switch because of the low costs and high efficiency.
Some advantages of VOIP
In addition to the lower cost of VOIP phone service compared to traditional phone service, most VOIP services include additional capabilities that allow you to manage your phone using a web portal that the VOIP service provides as part of the service.
Using the provider's portal it's often possible to setup things that were previously an added cost or difficult to manage such as call forwarding, call blocking, and sending voice messages to an email address.
Business use of VOIP
The majority of large businesses now use VOIP telephone services because of the cost savings and often use their private computer network rather than the public Internet, but it's still VOIP since the phone call is being sent using the “Internet Protocol.”
The services like Vonage and Ooma cater to home and small businesses and offer services which include multiple phone lines, fax, call routing menus and call recording (useful for customer service to keep records). If you have a larger organization, there are specialized VOIP service providers that handle converting and installing larger telephone installations.
If you run a business and haven't looked at the savings VOIP can provide, I definitely recommend it.
What about traditional phone service?
Most phone companies have stopped installing traditional telephone lines. In the past, these were dedicated wires (two for each phone line) that needed to be run to each residence or building for each phone. Office buildings are full of telephone cables that aren't used any longer as businesses have switched over to VOIP.
But in your home, you may think you have a traditional phone line, but it may, in fact, already be using VOIP run by the phone company. When Verizon started installing FIOS connections to their customers, they started disconnecting the old telephone wires wherever they installed FIOS and moved the telephone signals over to their digital FIOS network.
Cable companies that offer telephone service use VOIP, which is what allows then to connect your existing phones to the cable connection. While traditional phone companies don't put a VOIP converter box in your home, they do the conversion in their offices, so you don't need any converter box like Vonage or Ooma, but after they convert the analog signal to digital, it's a VOIP call just the same.
Phone Options and Porting
With the abundance of cellular phones, many people simply don't use a traditional telephone “land line” any longer and use their cell phone number for everything.
While services like Skype and Facetime allow phone and video conversations, they aren't technically considered VOIP since they don't require a telephone number, but Skype has a low-cost plan that will give you a real phone number to use.
If use a land-line, want to keep the number and save money, consider the option of “porting” it to a VOIP service. Most VOIP services will let you move your existing phone number to their service for a small one-time fee.
To my way of thinking.
With all the changes in pricing and costs, one issue that often gets lost is the value of support. If you have a land-line and cellular phone, your cellular service provider probably gives you better support than your land-line service company, so land-line support may bot be an issue. However, if you think you want 24-hour service by phone, expect to pay more for this with any phone service, which could be a reason for staying with your current phone company.
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