VoIP

VoIP- If you've never heard of VoIP, get ready to change the way you think about inter-office and/or long-distance phone calls. VoIP, or Voice over Internet Protocol, is a method for taking analog audio signals, like the kind you hear when you talk on the phone, and turning them into digital data that can be transmitted over the Internet.

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.

Benefits of VoIP- How is this useful? VoIP can turn a standard Internet connection into an easy way to telecommute, link remote office together or a way to place free phone calls. The practical upshot of this is that by using some of the free VoIP hardware and software that is available to make Internet phone calls, you are bypassing the phone company (and its charges) entirely.

For many companies, VoIP also offers some very unique possibilities. Some 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.

VoIP for Dummies (pdf File)