The VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol) is sometimes also referred as IP Telephony. Internet Protocol is considered the technology of the future in many circles. For routing telephone calls, VoIP uses a broadband internet connection.

The VoIP end user creates an internet connection, a router and also a VoIP gateway. The router sends the telephone call over an internet connection instead of standard telephone line. In simple words VoIP is transmission of voice over IP based networks. Initially Internet Protocol (IP) was created for data networking. But as IP got a great success in data networking, soon IP was adapted into voice networking. Because of its cost reduction the VoIP replaced the traditional telephone networks. As international calls are made over the internet, you only have to pay monthly internet fees. Now this is a big advantage over traditional telephone network considering their pay per minute rates.

VoIP features and services include eliminating phone lines, eliminating long distance charges, number portability, Computer Telephony Integration (CTI), call filtering, call forwarding, call waiting, call transfer, called ID block etc., but these features are not the only ones as VoIP technology is constantly getting updated every day and there are a lot of new features and services being added.

Video conferencing is very common nowadays in every organization. Due to its reliability and quality of service, VoIP is very helpful for small business organizations. Many people have used the VoIP but they are unaware that actually they are using that. The most common examples of VoIP are “Vonage” and widely used word wide “Skype”.

Image: Pixomar / FreeDigitalPhotos.net