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Before entering the VoIP world, you should
first get to know the basics. Websites like VoipChoices.com and the
article below will help you get informed.
VoIPChoices.com compares and contrasts several
of the most popular VoIP providers that are around today. All of the
prices of the Unlimited VoIP products reviewed at VoIPChoices.com start at
just $24.95 per month or less for residential service and plans
start at $39.95 for commercial lines as well. It is important to be
informed of all of your options before you choose a VoIP
provider.
VoIP 101: Voice over IP for
Beginners
by: Rich McIver
For those who have never heard about the
potential of VoIP, be prepared to radically change the way you think
about your current long-distance calling plan. VoIP (Voice over
Internet Protocol) is very simply, a method for taking ordinary
analog audio signals and turning them into digital signals that can
be sent over the Internet.
So what? Well, for those of you who are
already paying a monthly fee for an Internet connection, this means
that you can use that same connection to place free long distance
phone calls. This process works by using already available VoIP
software to make phone calls over the Internet, essentially
circumventing phone companies and their service charges.
Interestingly, VoIP is not an entirely new
thing. In fact, a number of providing companies have been around for
some time. But it has only been with the more recent explosion of
high-speed internet access usage, that VoIP has gotten any
attention. Now the major telephone carriers are setting up their own
VoIP calling plans throughout the US, another testament to the
potential of the technology.
How VoIP Is Used
While there are a number of ways that VoIP is
currently being used, most individual callers fall into one of three
categories: ATA, IP Phones, and Computer-to-Computer.
ATA or Analog Telephone Adaptor, is the most
common way of using VoIP. This adaptor actually allows you to hook
up the phone that is already in your house, to your computer, and
then your Internet connection. What the ATA does, is turn the analog
signals your phone sends out into digital signals that can be sent
over the Internet. Setting up this system is quite simple. It simply
requires that you order an ATA (its an adaptor remember), plug the
cable from your phone which would normally go into the wall socket
into the ATA, and then the ATA gets plugged into your computer,
which is connected to the internet. Some ATAs include software that
has to be installed on your computer before its ready, but basically
it's quite a simple process. Then you are ready to make some calls.
The next type of VoIP usage utilizes IP Phones
instead of your home phone. The IP Phone looks just like a normal
phone, with all the same buttons and cradle, the only difference is
that instead of having a normal wall jack connector, it has an
Ethernet connector. This means, that instead of plugging in your IP
phone to the wall jack like you would with a regular analog phone,
it gets plugged directly into your router. This option allows you to
circumvent your personal computer, and it also means that you will
not have to install any software, because its all built in to the
handset. In addition, the fact that Wi-Fi IP phones will soon be
available, which will allow subscribing callers to make VoIP calls
from any Wi-Fi hot spot, make this option an exciting possibility.
The simplest and cheapest way to use VoIP is
through computer-to-computer calls. These calls are entirely free,
meaning no calling plan whatsoever. The only thing you need, is the
software which can be found for free on the internet, a good
internet connection, a microphone, speakers, and a sound card.
Except for your monthly internet service fee, there is literally no
cost for making these calls, no matter how many you make.
For large companies, VoIP also offers some
very unique possibilities. Some larger companies are already
utilizing the technology by conducting all intra-office calls
through a VoIP network. Because the quality of sound is comparable
to and in some cases surpasses that of analog service, some
international companies are using VoIP to route international calls
through the branch of their company nearest the call's destination
and then completing it on an analog system. This allows them to pay
local rates internationally and still utilize the same intra-office
VoIP network that they would if they were calling someone in the
next cubicle over.
Other Advantages of VoIP
While your current long-distance plan covers
you for only one location, say calls made from your office, with
VoIP, you can make a call anywhere that you can get a broadband
connection. That is because all three methods above, unlike analog
calls, send the call information via the Internet. This means you
can make calls from home, on vacation, on business trips, and almost
anywhere else. Anywhere you go, with VoIP you can bring your home
phone along with you. In the same way, computer-to-computer
connections mean that as long as you have your laptop and a
connection, you're ready to go.
There are also some nifty benefits to having
your calls transmitted over the Internet. For example, some VoIP
service providers allow you to check your voicemail via your e-mail,
while others allow you to attach voice messages to your e-mails.
How VoIP Works
The current phone system relies on a reliable
but largely inefficient method for connecting calls known as circuit
switching. This technique, which has been used for over 100 years,
means that when a call is made between two people a connection is
maintained in both directions between callers for the duration of
the call. This dual directional characteristic gives the system the
name circuit.
If, for example, you made a 30-minute call the
circuit would be continuously open, and thus used, between the two
phones. Up until about 1960, this meant that every call had to have
an actual dedicated wire connecting the two phones. Thus a long
distance call cost so much, because you were paying for pieces of
copper wire to be connected all the way from your phone to the
destination phone, and for that connection to remain constant
throughout the call. Today, however, your analog call is converted
after leaving your house to a digital signal, where your call can be
combined with many others on a single fiber optic cable. While this
system is certainly an improvement over the past copper wire system,
it is still quite inefficient. This inefficiency is due in part to
the fact that the telephone line can't distinguish between useful
talking and unneeded silences. For example, in a typical
conversation while one person is talking the other person is
listening. Thus the current analog system uses roughly half its
space sending useless messages like this silence. But there is also
more information, even down to pauses in speech, which under a more
efficient system can be effectively cut out rather than wasting the
circuit space. This idea of only transmitting the noisy bits of a
telephone call and saving a great deal on circuit space, is the
basis of Packet-Switching, the alternative method to circuit
switching that the VoIP phone system uses.
Packet-Switching is the same method that you
use when you view a website. For example, as you read this website,
your computer is not maintaining a constant connection to the site,
but rather making connections to send and receive information only
on an as needed basis (such as when you click on a link). Just as
this system allows the transfer of information over the Internet to
work so quickly, so also does it work in the VoIP system. While
circuit switching maintains a constant and open connection, packet
switching opens connections just long enough to send bits of data
called packets from one computer to another. This allows the network
to send your call (in packets) along the least congested and
cheapest lines available, while also keeping your computer or IP
phone, free to send and receive messages and calls with other
computers. This way of sending information, not to mention data
compression, makes the amount of information which must be
transmitted for every call at least 3-4 times less for VoIP than the
exact same call in a conventional telephone system. For this reason,
VoIP is so much cheaper than conventional calling plans.
The Future of VoIP
While most analysts believe it will be at
least a decade before companies and telephone providers make the
full switch to VoIP, the potential for the technology's use today is
already quite astounding. A report by the Forrester Research Group
predicts that by the end of 2006, nearly 5 million U.S. households
will be using VoIP phone service. With the savings and flexibility
that the technology already offers, and new advances just ahead on
the horizon, we can expect those numbers will only increase in the
future.
About The Author
Rich McIver is a contributing writer
for VoIP Now: Voice over IP News ( http://www.voipnow.org ).
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