VoIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol, which is the underlying technology that enables Net phones. With VoIP, the sound of your voice is converted into a digital signal, broken up into small packets, and sent over the Internet to the person with whom you are carrying on a conversation.

Can I call a telephone or cell phone with VoIP phone services?

Yes, as long as the Net phone software you use offers a service that lets you dial regular telephone numbers. These services usually require a per-minute charge, even for local calls.

Its advantages over traditional telephony include:

• lower costs per call, especially for long-distance calls.
• lower infrastructure costs: once IP infrastructure is installed, no or little additional telephony infrastructure is needed.
• new advanced features.
• future proof as functionality is software (protocol) based and does not require hardware replacement

Voice over IP traffic does not necessarily have to travel over the public Internet; it may also be deployed on private IP networks for example on a LAN inside a single building.

The protocols used to carry the signal over the IP network are commonly referred to as Voice over IP or VoIP protocols.

Mass-market telephony over broadband Internet access

A new development has been the introduction of mass-market VoIP services over broadband Internet access services, in which subscribers make and receive calls as they would over the PSTN. This requires an analog telephone adapter (ATA) to connect a telephone to the broadband internet connection. Companies in the US, such as Vonage, VoicePulse, and Packet8, use IP to offer unlimited calling to the US, and sometimes to Canada or to selected countries in Europe or Asia, for a flat monthly fee. GTB (http://www.gtb.net ), Maryland's largest VOIP provider, offers a similar plan to businesses. One advantage of this is the ability to make and receive calls as you would at home, anywhere in the world, at no extra cost. As calls go via IP, this does not incur charges as call diversion does via the PSTN, and the called party does not have to pay for the call.

For example, somebody may call you on a number with a US area code, but you could be in London, and if you were to call another number with that area code, it would be treated as a local call, regardless of where you are in the world. However, the broadband phone is likely to complement, rather than replace a PSTN line, as it still needs a power supply, while calling the US emergency services number 911, may not automatically be routed to the nearest local emergency dispatch center, or be of any use for subscribers outside the US.

Another challenge for these services is the proper handling of outgoing calls from Fax machines, TiVo/ReplayTV boxes, satellite television receivers, alarm systems, conventional modems or FAXmodems, and other similar devices that depend on access to a voice-grade telephone line for some or all of their functionality. At present, these types of calls sometimes go through without a hitch, but in other cases they won't go through at all. And in some cases, this equipment can be made to work over a VoIP connection if the sending speed can be changed to a lower bits per second rate. If VoIP and cellular substitution becomes very popular, some ancillary equipment makers may be forced to redesign equipment, because it can no longer be assumed that a conventional voice-grade telephone line will be available in nearly every home in the United States and Canada.

There is also a free service called Free World Dialup (FWD), that permits users to make free telephone calls to other FWD users, although has only limited connections to and from the public switched telephone network.


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