In one line, VoIP (or Voice over IP) is the transmission of voice and other multimedia content through the Internet network. In other terms, it is the phone service over the internet.
If you have a sufficiently good working internet connection, then you don’t need your local telephone company to make a call. VoIP services simply enable you to make a distant communication just using your active internet connection. Some popular examples of VoIP are:
- Skype
- Google Duo
- Facebook Video, and so on.
How does it work?
What we transfer are analog signals. And what are transmitted through the network are digital signals. So there must be some way to convert those analog signals into digital, right?
VoIP puts out voice messages into an electronic envelope, called packets. It then transmits these packets over an IP network and convert them back to audio at the receiver end. This is called packet-switched protocol network. Now it does not just send your traditional voice messages. So what else?
Using VoIP, you or any company can transmit phone calls, fax messages, emails, web conferences, and much more services.
Why should you use VoIP?
There are various advantages to using VoIP over traditional methods. Let’s look at some of the main ones.
Reduce Costs
An obvious advantage here is that costs are reduced, which makes VoIP an attractive option for today’s businesses and startups. Corporations are turning to telephony solutions such as Ring Central, Google Voice, and others. Every modern business needs an internet connection to meet daily digital needs, and if you’re already paying for internet service, spending extra on a traditional phone system may not make sense any more.
And so, the network infrastructure costs are reduced. It helps you save a lot of your money on communication services. Your costs are even more reduced when it is the case of international calls. Such calling is free when you use Internet to make them.
More functionality
No wonder, you can do a lot more over IP than just the traditional calling. Some of the benefits we mentioned above as well, like fax and emails. You can even take you VoIP phone with you wherever you go. This would not have been possible with traditional phone. And you need not have to restrict yourself over one place if you have to make a call. With an active internet connection, you can make calls from anywhere in this world.
