Voice over Internet protocol

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also called Voice over Broadband is the new way to make phone calls today, it takes advantage of the internet to route voice conversations through a internet protocol-based network. Put into simple language, rather then using the traditional analogue phone lines VoIP uses the internet to transmit to digital signals. (1)

VoIP is improving and will further improve the way not only individuals live, but the way businesses function. Using internet to make calls allows you to bypass the phone company (eg. Bell) and thus its charges, this has given rise to the advantage of VoIP; its very cheap, in fact making computer to computer alls is free!

The technology has greatly decreased the costs for many businesses which make many international calls. This is really clear in the outsourcing industry and the carriers business (2). In the case of the outsourcing industry VoIP has greatly reduced costs of setting up technical support centers in countries where labor costs are low, such as India. VoIP has greatly reduced costs associated with tracking of international shipments.

VoIP does however have disadvantages. The main disadvantage is the need of a internet connection in order to work. However other disadvantages are (3):

• Unlike normal phone lines VoIP is dependent on presences of electrical power, thus in a blackout VoIP cannot be used
• Other systems which are hooked up to phone lines cannot be integrated with VoIP
• VoIP do not have a local call center like phone lines, thus in case of emergency calls your call cannot be routed to the closest possible emergency service (police, fire department, etc.)
• Working other processes on the same internet connection can cause decrease in quality of conversations
• There are some concerns of security however so far they do not seem to be a problem (4)
  

The next step in making VoIP the dominant way of communication is integrating VoIP with Wi-Fi (5). By having complete Wi-Fi coverage in residential areas it will be possible to make VoIP anywhere with populated areas. This is not to far away in the developed world however the developing world may fall behind and not realize these new benefits until later on in the future.

1- http://communication.howstuffworks.com/ip-telephony.htm
2- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_over_IP
3- http://communication.howstuffworks.com/ip-telephony4.htm
4- http://www.circleid.com/posts/examining_two_well_known_attacks_on_voip1/
5- http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,121978-page,1/article.html?RSS=RSS