You’ve seen the commercials and read the news announcements for phone service using your computer: very cheap monthly rates; make all the calls you want; keep your phone number forever; and voice quality as good as a landline phone. You’ve heard the claims, and you’ve heard the term “VoIP.” Here’s the scoop.
VoIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol and it does what the name suggests: it transmits voice data via IP packets over the Internet. It is also called Internet Telephony. It is easier to understand VoIP if you know a little about our telephone system – PSTN (the public switched telephone network) and a little about the Internet.
Your traditional landline carries calls over copper or fiber cables in the ground or on telephone poles with a cable connected to your home. When someone makes a call, a continuous path is made between the two phones, and information flows continuously in this loop. As you know from paying your bills, the longer the route, the more expensive the call.
Voice over IP works a bit differently. It works over the Internet, which is a packet-based network. Packet-based just means that instead of sending a continuous chain of information, it sends smaller packets of information.
With Voice over IP, your voice becomes a digital signal that travels over the Internet. There are three ways to do this: 1) using a VoIP phone; 2) use a computer with speakers and a microphone; or 3) using a regular phone with a VoIP adapter. Because IP packets are small by comparison, unlike downloading files, this all happens in real time, just like your regular phone.
Advantages of VoIP
Because the service is provided over the Internet, once you have the equipment in place, there are a number of benefits.
The main reason for the popularity of VoIP is its cost advantage. With regular phone service, you generally pay a flat monthly rate for your local calls and a per minute charge for long distance calls. Internet connections are charged as a monthly flat rate only. Because VoIP does not charge a per minute long distance fee, you will not incur those charges. If you make long distance calls, Voice over IP will surely save you a lot of money. If you used the Internet for both data traffic and voice calls, you could get rid of a monthly payment.
The other cost advantage is that since you use a broadband Internet connection, you efficiently use the existing infrastructure that you already use with your computer. There is only a minimum of software and hardware to buy.
Disadvantages of VoIP
There are some drawbacks with Voice over IP. One of the main ones is QoS or Quality of Service. Since there are packets carrying your voice information instead of a continuous stream of information, there could be problems with delay, extraneous sounds, echoes, and noise. The quality of VoIP depends on many factors: your broadband connection, your hardware, your Internet Service Provider (ISP), and the destination of your call, just to name a few.
Although Voice over IP has made substantial progress in the last 5 years in terms of quality of service, it still has a long way to go.
Another downside is that in the event of a power outage, you will lose the ability to make and receive calls unless you have a battery backup for your computer. With traditional phone service, the wires are directly connected to the phone lines and the phone company provides power independent of your home or business electrical power system. So you don’t normally lose your phone signal due to power loss with traditional service.
Another criticism of VoIP service is its historical problems with 911 emergency services. With traditional telephone service, the 911 system can identify the location and number of the caller because it is locally connected and routed. With VoIP, you are calling over the Internet and the actual signal can travel considerable distances before being routed to a local 911 service center. Therefore, geographically, the 911 system might have trouble pinpointing your location. Most VoIP services today include what is known as Enhanced 911 service. This is a process whereby the signal traveling over the Internet carries with it a physical address for the location of the call. Currently, VoIP equipment providers may charge an additional fee for this service.
Businesses looking to use Voice over IP to save money should consider any existing security issues. This is because with VoIP, information is sent over the Internet. As with any computer connection, it is possible that a hacker could intercept the information being transmitted. It is important to investigate the equipment provider’s network to determine how data is routed, what firewalls or other protections are provided for security purposes.
If you’re ready to look into VoIP for your phone or fax service, you can visit electronics retailers, big discount retailers, and search for information online. There are a variety of VoIP providers today. The equipment being used, the cost of the equipment, the cost of accessories, and the cost of any enhanced services can and should be compared.
You should buy the system and use the provider that you think would work best for your needs in terms of how many phones you want to connect to the system, what kind of security you need, and the cost of purchasing the equipment and service.
You may want to use a telecom management service for a cost analysis to see if Voice over IP will be a good fit for your business.
VoIP is still a new technology and hopefully there will be more and more improvements and innovations in the coming years.
