VoIP 101

VoIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol which is generally a means of transferring data, voice and other media forms over an IP network, commonly over the internet. The VoIP phones mechanism involves converting of analog signals to digital form, encoding and transmission over the internet and delivery where it could either be converted back to an analog state for public switched telephones (PSTN) or remain in its digital form for other VoIP telephony users depending on the output medium.

In 2004 VoIP technology was publicly made available on a massive scale, one of its primary objectives is to deliver affordable cross country and overseas business grade calls.

However, the deployment of earlier systems is somehow limited despite the direct proportion to the internet especially in long distance usage but continuous development in the technology paved way for newer and better protocol such as the Media Gateway Control Protocol (MGCP) and the Session Internet protocol (SIP) that offers almost limitless capabilities with none of the drawbacks of earlier protocols, the adoption of the two protocols opened a stream of opportunity for both corporate and residential to have better and cheaper telephony systems

Since the inception of global communications, cost has been a major setback, conventional telephony systems are very expensive to use and to maintain rendering global communications a privileged only for large scale companies but with the introduction of VoIP phone systems small businesses can now expand globally and tender their services to almost everywhere at a very reasonable rate that is nowhere near conventional phones.

Businesses can wave traditional PBX goodbye, and welcome a newer and better phone systems through cloud PBX system which is another proprietary of VoIP services, cloud PBX is generally a PBX that runs over the cloud network (internet) combining data and multiple voice transmission over a single network reducing infrastructure cost and monthly bills but not compromising functionality and features.

VoIP phone systems are extremely reliable and cheap thus over 75% of new business phone systems or PBX in the United States in the past couple of years is powered by VoIP and is usually under a sip trunk protocol for PSTN connection.

The development of wireless connection via Wi-Fi and or 3g services enabled VoIP users to access the service almost anywhere from smart phones, laptops and handheld devices like tablets and PDAs. Wireless connectivity and IP networks showcased the potential of the internet in telecommunications and are changing the industry rapidly.