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by: Eric Buckley
There has been a lot of hype about VoIP lately. But few of us understand the entire scope of what this term covers. Ask several people with varied backgrounds what their definition of VoIP is and you may get several different answers.
VoIP in a very simple form, means carrying voice traffic over an IP (Internet Protocol) based network. But this isn't the end of the definition. Just because someone is using VoIP, doesn't mean they are making a callover the Internet. It simply means they are not using a standard voice switching network as we have all become accustomed to using. You could say that VoIP can be divided further into groups such as; Voice over Internet, Voice over IP, Voice over LAN, or even voice over WLAN. Each of these terms identifies a different type of network carrying voice traffic using IP.
With Voice over Internet, there are no "Quality of Service" or "Grade of Service" guarantees like those provided by your existing telephone provider. The other three options offer some form of a Quality of Service, but this relies completely on the performance of the network that is providing the service. Services like Skype and Vonage, use networks that are not controlled by a Quality or Grade of Service standard, but yet they still offer a very good quality call.
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Skype is a very versatile option because it allows you to have a phone number in any of 14 countries around the world. People then simply call that mnumber and can reach you on an IP based Skype device or a computer with Skype installed.
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Many large scale or global carriers, are converting, or have already converted their back bone networks to an IP based system to help reduce the costs incurred by conventional networks. Looking to the future, wireless and cellular netwroks will begin to compete for voice traffic in the same way that conventional PSTN networks have been competing with Internet based VoIP services.
There any many new providers of VoIP entering the market at a fast pace. This makes it difficult for the average consumer to decide what is best when considering phone services. So we have compiled a few articles from various sources on the web to help you understand a bit more about VoIP and if it is for you. We hope you find it helpful.
Eric Buckley is the Mobility Product Manager at British Telecom based in Hong Kong.
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