The world has shrunk, thanks to an invention called the Internet. Communication is now made easier. Barely two decades ago, a person in Thailand has to wait for weeks for a letter from the United States. Now, a letter can be sent in a matter of seconds, through e-mail or electronic mail. A few years ago, talking to a person halfway across the world is guaranteed to cost hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars. Now, with the advent of VoIP telephony, it costs nothing more than a local phone call to your neighbour. Sometimes, it's even for free!

Defining VoIP

Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP telephony, is the routing of voice conversations over the Internet. It allows anybody to utilize the internet as one gigantic phone line. With VoIP telephony, you can now indulge in talking until your ears heat up and go numb, even if the conversation is with someone from another continent.

VoIP telephony is very straightforward. To avail of this technology, all you need is a computer, a stable Internet connection, and a provider.

What Does VoIP telephony Have for You?

Though still a fairly new technology, VoIP telephony is capable of facilitating tasks that ordinary landlines and mobile phones can't achieve. VoIP telephony's number one feature is portability. It is location-independent, requiring only an Internet connection to connect with a provider. Most providers give subscribers a router to connect to their computers. Take this router with you on vacation or a business trip, and hook it up to a local computer with Internet connection. It's guaranteed that you will never miss a single phone call, wherever you are in the world. You can even choose a phone number that's registered to a city or state other than the one you're in at the moment.

Most of the leading VoIP telephony providers have introduced several features that rival those of landline and cellular phones. One example is caller ID, for both incoming and outgoing calls. Some providers even go as far as providing the option of blocking caller information. Call forwarding to landlines, cellular phones, and other VoIP phone numbers is also offered. Furthermore, other providers are also currently offering toll-free numbers, virtual phone numbers, softphones for added portability, fax lines, and multiply phone lines, and only recently, text messaging service, a milestone for VoIP telephony.

What You Need to Go VoIP

To fully appreciate the wonders of VoIP telephony, a high-speed Internet connection is a must. The technology relies heavily on bandwidth, making it impossible for a slow dial-up connection to support it. Power supply is also essential in VoIP telephony. Routers are connected to computers so an outage in power also leads to an outage in phone service.

VoIP and Emergency

In the past, emergency services posed a problem for VoIP telephony. Owing to the static nature of IP addresses, a call to 911 does not guarantee a connection with the local dispatch center of the caller. Service providers have long since addressed this obstacle by requiring the registration of the physical address where the VoIP line is used. A call to 911 would then display the caller's address, making it easy for the dispatcher to route the call to the local emergency center. This workaround is called E911 or Enhanced 911.

Like all new technologies, VoIP telephony is far from perfect. There have been reports of bad voice quality in phone calls. However, these issues are being addressed one by one and most VoIP telephony subscribers have seen a great improvement in the quality of their voice calls. You'll be able to enjoy full voice clarity in no time at all.