Minimize Your Phone Bill with VoIP

Broadband phones are here for quite some time and is definitely the future of telecommunications. These phones are used to make telephone calls via PC over internet thus drastically cutting down the cost of your huge telephone bills. In UK and US, broadband and internet phones have become a household name and more and more people are switching to internet phone service rather than using traditional phone lines.

Broadband phones use the technology called Voice over IP (Internet Protocol), or VoIP. VoIP technology is used to transmit voice conversations over a data network using the Internet Protocol. Such data network may be the Internet or a corporate Intranet. It carries telephone voice signals as IP packets in compliance with International Telecommunications Union Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) specification H.323. VoIP enables a router to transmit telephone calls and faxes over the Internet with no loss in functionality, reliability, or voice quality. VoIP utilizes bandwidth to send voice packets like any other data. When they reach their destination, the data packets are converted and reconstructed into voice.
The primary motivations for doing so are cost and convenience as VoIP is significantly less expensive than typical telephone long distance packages, plus one high speed Internet connection can serve for multiple phone lines.

Advantages of VoIP Technology:

1. Universal Appeal: VoIP could be applied to almost any voice communications requirement, ranging from a simple inter-office intercom to complex multi-point teleconferencing/shared screen environments.

2. Low Cost: Reducing long distance telephone costs is a major reason for using VoIP. Today flat rate long distance pricing is available with the Internet and can result in considerable savings for both voice transfer and fax. And because VoIP uses the infrastructure of the Internet to make outgoing calls, you can cut down your telephone bills considerably. Depending upon your VoIP service provider you can also make long distance calls that cost little calls charges. Many VoIP services providers also offer customers VoIP products like calling cards which have discounted rates, which further allow you to save more.

If you have VoIP software installed in your computer and you make a call to someone who also uses VoIP software in the same local area, then you can talk to him as long as you wish without paying a pound. This is because the data is transferred in mode similar to that of an email and your voice is converted into digital data packets rather than audio. VoIP also enables conference calls and video calls at economical cost.

3. Simplification: The integrated infrastructure supports all forms of communication over internet and allows more standardization and reduces the total equipment complement.

Disadvantages:

1. Connectivity: One of the major disadvantages of VoIP is that it only works if the computer of user is switched on and the VoIP software is running. It also requires that the other person with whom the user wants to communicate has the same program loaded and running on his computer.

2. Quality of Sound: Another major disadvantage of VOIP is that the quality of the sound can be uneven and calls can have lot of delay with lot of echo.

3. Security: One more area of concern related to voip is the security of the data transferred. They are more susceptible to the Denial of Service (DOS) attacks and other forms of obnoxious hacking because many businesses operate personal gateways and other equipment for connecting to the internet. However there is solution to every problem and if regular precautions are followed while transferring files and data, then this problem can be solved.

Finally it can be said that VoIP technology is emerging as a major player in the telecom industry and in spite of the challenges faced, it is definitely going to be the future of voice communication.

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