The VoIP Telephone Services Revolution

Ever since the birth of the internet, entrepreneurs with an eye to the future have predicted that voice communications -- telephone services -- would eventually be merged with internet services. With the widespread adoption of VoIP, that day has come, and it is causing a revolution in the telephone industry.

In simple terms, a VoIP service allows you to use your broadband (high-speed) connection to place telephone calls over the Internet. It is not difficult to see how this is rocking the telecom industry to the core.

It's all about cost

Two things have made traditional telephone service providers so powerful. Their monopoly over local telephone services, and their traditional stranglehold on lucrative and usually over-priced long distance services. Both of these captive markets have been seriously eroded over the last few years, as the reality of VoIP has started to sink in.

In anticipation of the revolution that is now upon us, most aspects of telephone service have gradually been opened up to competition. Most of us now have a choice of providers for both local and long distance telephone service. And the biggest reason for the new competitive environment is the recognition that the widespread adoption of VoIP is inevitable.

The development of VoIP

VoIP has been developing slowly over the last ten years or so. Early implementations allowed computer users to talk to each other through their computers. This was only feasible if you had a voice-enabled computer, a reliable and stable internet connection, and a software program installed on your computer that made it all work.

The advantage of this computer-to-computer communication was that you could completely bypass the traditional telephone system and talk to anyone in the world free of charge -- as long as they had a similar setup to yours. But the disadvantages of communicating this way were also obvious. You could only communicate this way using your computer. You were completely dependent on often unstable dial-up internet connections. And the person at the other end of the conversation had to also be online with a voice-enabled computer.

Today's VoIP has solved these problems

Today's versions of VoIP have left these problems in the past. Two things were required to make VoIP technology feasible on a large scale basis, and both of these things have now been realized.

First, broadband internet service has been widely adopted. This makes it possible to have stable internet connections that are always on. Second, the industry has developed a simple, inexpensive method of integrating the IP network (the internet) with the traditional telephone system. This allows a user of VoIP to use his or her own telephone to call anyone else in the world who has a traditional telephone connection.

This is where we are today. As traditional telecom companies like AT&T, Bell, Qwest, and SBC develop their own implementations of VoIP technology the way has been opened up for a myriad of choices for consumers. Today's VoIP allows anyone with a broadband internet connection to place calls to anyone with an ordinary telephone connection, anywhere in the world.

Why you save money with VoIP

The major advantages of VoIP are lower cost, and greater flexibility with no significant decrease in voice quality. First, a VoIP subscriber does not need a traditional phone line. Instead, you are assigned a phone number by your VoIP provider. Prices for these numbers can be as low as $9 usd per month.

Second, most VoIP subscribers will purchase a bundle of services that includes unlimited incoming calls and unlimited long distance calls to anyone within a defined geographic area. For instance, VoIP unlimited calling plans to anyone in the USA or Canada start at around $20 per month.

Third, most VoIP service providers offer free bundled features that most traditional telephone companies charge for. These include free voicemail, call forwarding, caller ID, call waiting, call waiting ID, 3 way calling, speed dialing, and many more of the services that the traditional companies are constantly trying to sell you.

Greater flexibility and portability

Another significant advantage is the flexibility and portability of VoIP phone service. With VoIP your personal telephone number is programmed into the converter that acts as a bridge between your internet connection and your regular telephone.

This has several important advantages. As already mentioned you do not need an actual land line. Instead your telephone number is assigned to your converter (not to your geographic land line). So you can take your converter with you anywhere in the world, plug it into any available broadband connection, and immediately start using your regular number to make and receive calls.

This flexibility also lets you choose a number in an area code where most of your long distance calls originate. For instance, if many of your friends, family, business associates or customers are calling from a specific city that traditionally involved a long distance call for them, you could choose a number in that area code and immediately turn all their calls to you into local (free) calls for them.

The advantages of VoIP are many, and the savings can be very significant. So it is no wonder that VoIP has become the hottest telecom technology of the decade. Informed consumers and businesses around the world are adopting this technology at a phenomenal rate.

For more information on VoIP features and comparisons of VoIP service providers, see VoIP Comparisons, or visit our blog VoIP Providers.

Rick Hendershot is a writer and publisher of the Linknet Publishing Network - for article writing and publishing services and for high impact blog listings.

Broadband Phones: Myth and Reality

Broadband phones are becoming more mainstream. There are articles whether broadband phone service reached a tipping point or not. What is clear, though, is that phone service delivered over the public internet is the future of telecommunications.

Let's take a step back and examine what the uses are for broadband phone service. More specifically, the technology behind it. Broadband phone service is utilized by a technology called Voice Over IP (Internet Protocol), or VoIP. It utilizes the bandwidth (the speed in layman's terms) to send voice packets. These packets are sent like any other data (i.e. email, web browsing etc.). When they reach their destination the data packets are reconstructed and converted into voice!

All of this happens in a fraction of a second but many issues can arise to degrade the broadband phone service quality. A slow connection, bad phone, over-utilized bandwidth and a bad service provider can all degrade the quality of the phone call.

While broadband phone service uses VoIP not all VoIP is using broadband phone service, at least in the traditional sense. Companies with multiple office can communicate using VoIP over direct connections or over the public Internet. Even though between the remote offices they are communicating over VoIP when a call is made outside the company they can still use regular phone service (PSTN or T-1 service). This allows them to take advantage of Voice Over IP without the detriments of broadband phone service.

There are usually significant cost savings by using broadband phone service that can alleviate the negative effects of service quality. For the general consumer this might be an acceptable trade-off. But a commercial enterprise might not want to accept this risk.

Another issue that arises with broadband phone service providers is their longevity. Since it's relatively inexpensive to start a VoIP company you should be extra cautious about the background of the company before you commit your number. Many consumers have been burnt by using new companies who offered too good to be true deals. Sometimes when it's too good to be true it IS too good to be true. Buyer beware.

There are many cool features that broadband phone companies provide. For example, many of them email you your voice-mails. You can open your email and listen to the audio attachment on your computer. Some also offer a voice menu system that you can change, when you want, on their website.

As the technology matures and the quality gets better broadband phone service will be the norm and old legacy phones will be just that, a legacy from the past.

Cy Yablonsky is a Realtor Associate with ERA Othello Realty, with a strong concentration in technology. Visit Real Estate in NJ to visit the http://www.OthelloRealty.com website. You have permission to reproduce this article as long as this paragraph and all links are live.

VoIP in the Home

VoIP is set to revolutionise home communications. With VoIP you can make telephone calls over your broadband connection for free! Well in some cases you can, in other cases you might need to pay a monthly subscription to a VoIP service provider. There are a few different ways you can take advantage of VoIP at home.

PC to PC

The simplest and most cost effective way to get into VoIP is by installing some free software on your PC and invest in a telephone headset( you can also use a microphone and your PC speakers). Once you have this set up you can talk to other people using the same software from your PC to their PC.

Sounds good? Well yes and no, you both have to be sat in front of your PC's to communicate, which is not particularly convenient. Though if you are making a lot of international calls this can be a great way to speak to relatives overseas completely free of charge.

PC to Phone

You can take phone calls over broadband a step further by setting up a 'PC to Phone' VoIP system. This is similar to the 'PC to PC' method outlined above. You need to have a headset and download specialist software too, though with this method you can contact any phone you like.

However, via this method the calls are not free and you will need to prepay for your calls. The supplier of your software will require you to add money to your phone account much like the pre-pay system for mobile phones. When you choose your service provider you will need to carefully check the rates they offer. Some have great deals for landline calls, but are expensive if you wish to call a mobile phone - so do your research.

Phone to Phone

This is the most exciting incarnation of VoIP for the home, you can either buy a VoIP ready phone or an adaptor that connects your phone to your broadband line, and from there contact any phone over your broadband connection.

You will need to sign up with a VoIP service provider to accomplish this. Usually you will be charged a monthly fee, and typically get all your UK landline phone calls free. There are additional deals for international calls and contacting mobile phones.

Whatever option you chose to connect to at home, you are sure to take advantage of the future of home telecommunications - VoIP!

The author runs a site about UK VoIP Service Providers at http://www.speakonline.co.uk

Facts behind the Myths of Partner Telephones

They?re expensive.
Not true; there are models with 18 and 34 buttons that cost a little more, but Avaya also has an affordable 6 button model, designed for price- conscious customers.

Partner Phones don?t have the features I need. And let me tell you, I need a lot of features.
You?ve come to the right phone. Avaya designed the Partner phones to fit the complex needs of growing businesses. In addition to all the standard features, Partner phones have back- lit displays, programmable buttons, and message- waiting indicators, allowing you to work more efficiently. In fact, Avaya is the only phone company to put easily read back- lit displays on their phones.

And, Partner phones use LEDs for the message- waiting indicators instead of displaying it only on the display. Now, you know if you message from across the room, saving you time.

I?m just a small business, I don?t need that much of a phone.
Avaya made the Partner phones with you in mind; they?re designed for small to medium business, and the features will help you work efficiently and productively.

Partner Phones are hard to use.
In fact, Partner phones are easier to use than other business phones. Some companies have a single button for hold, conference, and transfer, making things more difficult. But Partner phones have separate buttons for each function, and a fixed intercom button. And, the programmable buttons make the phones easy to configure to match your needs.

Partner phones can be installed either on your desktop or as wall- mounts, to best fit your space.

You can?t upgrade Partner Phones.
You sure can: they have an auxiliary port, so it?s easy and inexpensive to add a headset, cordless phone, or an answering machine.

I?m a busy person; I always do 15 things at once, and when I?m on the phone, I?m also typing reports, reading emails, and updating the schedule on my BlackBerry via Bluetooth. I have no use for Partner phones.
You couldn?t be further from the truth; the phones work with headsets, have a speakerphone, and have a hands free answer on intercom option. In other words, you can answer calls without picking up the phone. It?s brilliant, and makes working that much easier. So use the Partner phones and multi- task with abandon.

I have an old phone and data network, and these new- fangled phones won?t work with what I have.
All Partner phones are backwards- compatible, so you have nothing to worry about; they will work with your existing Partner network.

Yes, it?s all very well and good that Partner phones have LEDs as message- waiting indicators, but I?m color- blind so this feature is useless for me.
Good news- the phones have both red and green LEDs, so if you have trouble telling colors apart, you?ll do just fine with Partner phones.

Cameron Elliott is an Telephony specialist at avaya voip phone systems where he extols the benefits of Avaya Phone Systems

Net Telephone Services In Trouble 911 FCC Rules Upheld

Net telephone service providers are facing a huge problem. A court has upheld FCC regulations requiring the voice over internet protocol providers to provide 911 services.

911 Rules

As you know, traditional telephone companies provide 911 call services to customers. Under long established laws, the traditional telephone companies are required to automatically route such calls to a geographically appropriate area and deliver the originating phone number and address of the call. Net telephone services haven?t done this in the past as the technical reading of the regulations didn?t require them to. Now the regulations do and it is causing problems.

VOIP net telephone services are having severe difficulty complying with the FCC regulations. The calls are not routed through a traditional telephone line structure, which makes it very hard to determine the original calling number and address. On top of this, it is extraordinarily difficult to route the calls to the appropriate geographic emergency phone call center. Throw in politics and you have a boondoggle in the making.

911 In A Digital Age

In many cases, government agencies fail to appreciate the complexities of the Internet and digital technology. They have a habit of issuing rules and regulations that are either antiquated or impossible to implement. The FCC and FTC are famous for doing so, particularly since the agencies seem to have the technical sophistication of dinosaur. On the issue of 911 rules for net telephone services, however, the FCC has acted appropriately.

911 is a critical service that must be made available to the public. It performs a service that is both needed and necessary. As the net telephone services seek bigger shares of the commercial market, they must also assume larger responsibility for the services they provide. This is particularly true for 911 services.

911 emergency call centers help save lives. In health risk situations, time is almost always a critical component in the outcome. Given as much, the FCC has acted appropriately in requiring net telephone services to provide 911 services to customers.

Richard A. Chapo is a San Diego business lawyer with http://www.sandiegobusinesslawfirm.com - a San Diego business law firm in San Diego, California.

The Latest Wireless GPhones

The latest to join the many treats are WiFi cell phones by Linksys with which VoIP calls can be made over Wireless ?G networks.

Expected to retail at US$ 220- US$ 370 the phones have a user interface that can be configured to function using available wireless-G networks.

Wow:

?You can access your VoIP service, check mail, and view videos as the built in browser of WIP 330 will find and access the World Wide Web.The 330 is sleek just 1.84 x 5.32x0.74 and weighs 4.2oz. It comes with a pixel color screen, numeric key pad, soft keys and a 4-way navigation pad.

The WIP330 has:

• SIP v2 standards.
  
• Compliance with IEEE 802.11 b/g standards.
  
• QoS, support for quality of service.
  
• Enhanced power savings.
  
• Quick Hotspot authentication.
  
• The use of HTTP for configuration and upgrades.

?If you choose to use WIP 300 then the connection to Wireless G is through a Linsky router.

Another giant in communications Toshiba has launched two VoIP phones the Hitachi IP50000, Spectra Link 6020, and a wireless PDA. The IP5000 will function on 802.11b Toshiba network and the Spectralink on private wireless networks. These are just two among many choices.

A wireless G phone presents many options: phone calls, web based e-mail and videos, three-way conference calls, call on hold, and a register for incoming calls. VoIP providers like Vonage give priority to the consumer need and facilities come at no extra charge making VoIP an affordable and attractive proposition.

To function G-phones require a broadband connection, a router, or a DHCP server, and an activated VoIP service. The WIP330 is a leader in its niche and it supports WEP encryption and WPSPSK wireless security.

The radio is designed for use in cellular handsets and has enhanced filtering and a trans-receiver with a power amplifier.

The color interface has great graphics and the menu gives phone status, wireless signal strength, battery level, time and date as well as the handsets phone number. The ?settings? screen can be accessed by a button on the navigation pad.

The phone has all a mobile user looks for: vibration mode, ring tones, phone book as well as log. It will allow instant communication at low costs and is declared to be the trend setter of the future.

For the latest information log on to: http://www.linksys.com/; http://www.wi-fiplanet.com/; and http://voipspeak.net/ among the many sites on the World Wide Web dedicated to technology advancements. An in depth analysis of the phones can be found at: http://www.tomsnetworking.com/2005/11/08/linksyswip330wireless/

Before rushing out to buy a phone take a minute to learn all you can about it and its uses. Benefit as much as you can from the advances of technology.

Andrew Bermam is a freelance writer for http://www.1866Voip.com, the premier website to find help on Voip including topics on online voip, voip phone, voip service providers, voip solutions, business voip, internet telephony voip and more. He also freelances for the premier Music site http://www.1888Music.com

An Honest Review of Vonage: A FeatureRich Worldready VoIP

With more players jumping into the already populated space of Voice over the Internet Protocol (VoIP), the perceptive user has that much more choice. Vonage is a leading player in this marketplace with over a million subscribers worldwide in a short lifespan of three years. However, there is a set of negatives too, so wait until you reach the end of this review before you decide to switch from your traditional landline service to Vonage telephony.

What is Vonage and how does it differ from your landline connection? For a start, you must have a broadband connection, preferably cable-based; a dial-up is no good. When you call Vonage customer service for a connection, Vonage sends you a tiny box, which you have to plug to your telephone and your cable modem or DSL. You are now set to start a Vonage conversation. With a Vonage connection, you have access to your telephone through your computer and the broadband connection. The other big difference from a traditional phone service is cost effectiveness; with a Vonage, you can cut your telephone bill significantly, and converse worldwide by buying local telephone numbers from Vonage.

Vonage offers a set of four monthly packages for all calls in the US, Canada, and Puerto Rico: a premium unlimited offer at US$24.99, a basic plan of 500 minutes at US$14.99, a small-business unlimited package at US$49.99, and a basic small-business offer of 1500 minutes at US$39.99. For calls from the US to other world destinations, there is a nominal per-minute rate applicable, which is well below what you would pay to your landline service provider. For example, for a minute?s call to Mumbai (India), you need to pay only US$0.17; for a call to the UK, it is as low as US$0.04 per minute.

The Vonage Website lists the charges applicable to each city on its network. Perhaps the best part of Vonage is that you can carry your US telephone number to any part of the world with broadband connectivity, and call the US at local call rates. For any reason, if you are dissatisfied with Vonage services, you can opt for the 14-day (or 30-day for some packages) money-back offer. This trial period is enough time to try out the excellent features that you get with Vonage:

?An unlisted telephone number

?Call waiting, callerID

?Call forwarding, 7-digit dialing (rather than area code +number used in many markets, including Lingo)

?An innovative voicemail feature

?Repeat dial

?Dynamic periodic feature updates

However, Vonage is not all positives. Its founding premise is a bit wobbly; your connection is afloat only as long as your broadband connection is. Any Internet outage and Vonage will cease to function. Call quality is also dependent on the speed of your broadband. Then there is the question of availability of a local number for your city; Vonage may not have your city listed, so you should confirm this with Vonage customer support before deciding on the service. Vonage is facing stern competition from AT&T and Verizon, and users have preferred the call quality of AT&T to that of Vonage. Vonage is also not the cheapest VoIP service around in the marketplace.

However, Vonage is a winner on features. If you have a dependable broadband connection, need to make frequent international calls, and travel to world destinations but need to stay in touch with the US, Vonage is for you.

Hamesh Brown enjoys writing about VoIP. See http://www.voipreviewsonline.com/2005/10/vonagereview.html for another Vonage review.

What Makes a VoIP Phone System Work? What Is VoIP Protocol?

The phone services offered by your local phone companies use circuit-switching technologies. In basic terms a copper wire is used to complete a circuit and to connect two people talking on the phone. A VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) phone system works by the use of packet-switching technology.

This VoIP protocol technology does not use a copper wire to complete a circuit, but instead the voice signals are broken down into tiny packets of digital data and then are sent over the internet and reassembled on the other end and a crystal clear voice message can be heard just like we are used to, but the cost to you to do this at least 50% less than what your regular phone company will charge you!

There are many companies that are now on the cutting edge of this technology. They all offer packages with call waiting, call conferencing, caller ID, and much more at no additional costs. One company offers you a basic free service to use VoIP from computer to computer worldwide and another company offers VoIP services when you travel! All bases,so to speak,of your VoIP needs are now available in the marketplace!

To make the switch from the old (or analog) phone system to the new VoIP (or digital) phone system is a snap! Don't let this new technology scare you off! All you need to do is have a broadband internet connection (DSL or Cable) and the correct hardware as provided by the particular VoIP carrier that you choose. All VoIP Carriers offer easy ways to make the switch including keeping your present number. The hardware needed is usually a phone adapter and a router that you plug into your computer and regular phone.

Your VoIP phone company will supply you with the needed hardware and tell you which plugs go where. It takes a few minutes to plug in the plugs! Before you know it you will be making calls at a 50% savings over your old phone service with unbelievable clarity!

Hugh McMarlin has many online endeavors and his informational VoIP site, http://www.voip-carrier-4u.com is his latest. Read his latest articles on FREE VoIP You can also learn more about the pros and cons of VoIP by reading his article on the Pros and Cons of VoIP