Tech

Be leery of your VoIP phone system in case of emergencies. 911 services may not be available to you or will be limited. You should put local emergency numbers by or on your phone in case you have a problem until the providers get this sorted out this fall. The FCC has been after VoIP providers to fix this problem and just recently extended the deadline. But for you and me, that means we have to be careful in emergencies or be left stranded trying to dial 911.

Providers of VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) phone service have been told by the FCC to warn customers of potential problems of using 911 as an emergency number. The FCC told providers they should obtain acknowledgements from their subscribers and if they didn’t, then they should turn off their service.

The VON coalition, a group of VoIP providers which include AT&T and MCI, were concerned of what would happen to their customers if they were cut off. Some portion of the subscribers typically won’t respond to a request. Is it in the public’s best interest to disconnect these people?

What is VoIP?

First things first, VoIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol. At a base level that means phone calls over your broadband connection. You really do need a high-speed connection to take advantage of VoIP to get phone calls comparable to a normal landline phone. Traditional “dial-up” connections are not really sufficient.

VoIP works in a different way to your home phone. Your home phone is based on an analogue network, whereas VoIP is based on a digital one. Essentially when you speak into a VoIP enabled phone or headset your voice is converted into digital packets; it is then compressed to help your Internet connection run more efficiently and then it is transferred down the connection much like an email. Once it reaches its destination the process is reversed.

Why might I want to switch to VoIP?

It’s a good question. We all have a working phone in our homes or business, why should we change? Lets look at the advantages and disadvantages of VoIP

Advantages

Well to put it simply - cost. VoIP makes calls significantly cheaper. And (Depending on your package) for a low cost monthly subscription local and national calls can be made for free, and international calls made at a significantly lower rate.

Its not so long ago that the idea of free phone calls over the Internet would have been thought an impossibility, but as any knowledgeable user will tell you they are now commonplace. Skype the pioneer and market leader has 51 million users and a great, easy to use software package that allows your computer to make Internet phone calls between subscribers.

All you need is a reasonable computer, preferably a broadband connection but it will work over a dial up connection, and a microphone, then as long as the person you want to contact is online and also signed up to the same service, you can talk for ever for no cost.

This is possible because your speech is sent over the Internet in the data packets, just like email or any other Internet service. Microsoft, AOL, BT and Yahoo all have their own instant voice messaging services and now Google has joined in, with the launch of its instant messaging and Internet Phone service Google Talk. The service will be free to all users of its email program Gmail. This must be causing Googles competitors some concern, because as we all know from past, experience when Google does something they always want to be the market leader.

It seems like technology is headed for a massive telephone change over. The traditional Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) is looking to be replaced by VoIP. VoIP is short for Voice over IP. VoIP is the routing of conversations over an IP network or the Internet. VoIP uses a packet-switched network instead of the circuit-switched voice transmission lines used by traditional telephone networks. VoIP does not need an Internet connection to work. A company that has a LAN connection with all of its computers can utilize VoIP technology.

VoIP is a great technology, but has a variety of issues with implementation. VoIP may face problems with latency because IPs do not provide Quality of Service guarantees, nor do they provide their packets of information in sequential order. High-speed Internet connections are required for VoIP and firewalls often prove tricky for VoIP technology. To combat this, many people use Session Border Controllers (SBC).

Since we’re using computers all the time to do our work, let’s make it easy and add the phone to the pile. VoIP also known as (voice over Internet protocol), Internet telephony, IP telephony, and Internet voice is catching on and is expected to grow in the next few years. The technology has been around for about a decade, but it isn’t till now that we have the supporting technology to handle it and an market reaching critical mass (hate using jargon, but there isn’t a better way to say it).

VoIP requires users to have broadband connections. With 22 percent of Americans connected to the Internet by broadband, the numbers are large enough for making money with Internet voice and big telecoms are already in the game.

How VoIP works

VoIP works like email. TCP/IP networks consist of IP packets with a header for controlling communication and information for transportating data. VoIP uses the IP packets to send the human voice across the Internet using IP packets to its destination.

It digitizes a voice into data packets, sends them through the network and converts them back to voice when arriving at the destination. Digital format can be compressed, routed, and converted to other and better formats.

My friend in Florida, Samuel, called me last week and immediately I noticed a difference in the sound quality compared to our usual conversations. At first, I dismissed it, thinking he was calling me from his cell phone. Five minutes into the conversation when the call suddenly dropped off I “knew” for sure he was calling on his cell. Until he called me back from his cell that is. It turned out that Samuel was using his regular home phone, but when he told me that he had a VoIP account that was all I needed to know.

What is VoIP? VoIP stands for Voice Over Internet Protocol which is a method for you to talk with someone via your broadband internet connection, cable or DSL. Your voice is translated into data and sent over the same connection used for your computer. VoIP has become popular because you can talk to people for just a few cents per minute…worldwide! In fact, in a recent ad I saw that one of the leading providers of this service is offering free calls to Canada and charging just 3 cents per minute for calls to Hong Kong and 6 cents per minute for calls to Copenhagen. People who frequently call international destinations love VoIP. Heck, at prices one-tenth the amount or less of conventional long distance rates VoIP does have a strong appeal for consumers.

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.

VoIP allows users to make phone calls using their high-speed Internet connection. This translates into free, or very low cost long-distance calling. Because VoIP uses the power of the Internet, traditional phone companies are left completely out of the loop. Of course, now that the idea of VoIP is catching on more and more, traditional phone companies are developing and offering their own VoIP options so as not to be left out. From the consumer’s point of view, this competition is keeping options open and pricing low. For businesses, this is particularly good news, since many VoIP providers will want the business of business–this is a huge market, which providers are aware, of, so the savvy businessperson will take advantage of this, conduct thorough research, and seek out the best possible option to meet the company’s needs.

What are the Pros to Using VoIP?

Cost is a number one factor. If your business does a high volume of long distance calling, this can be an extremely affordable way to go. Another positive is that the future of long distance calling is VoIP. As time passes, more and more options will be available and the market will become even more competitive. It is also easy to use, although a business set-up will be more complicated than a home set-up.

A long-standing question for potential VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) consumers is "How much bandwidth does a VoIP phone require to make quality telephone calls?"

First of all, Bandwidth is defined as the ability to transfer data (such as a VoIP telephone call) from one point to another in a fixed amount of time. The higher the bandwidth speed you have, the more data you can send over your Broadband Internet connection.

There are two types of bandwidth at your location: upload bandwidth and download bandwidth. The Upload Bandwidth is the amount of data you can send to the Internet and download bandwidth is the amount of data you can receive from the Internet. The more Internet bandwidth you have from your ISP (Internet Service Provider) the better.

Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephone service uses a broadband Internet connection (DSL or cable) instead of the Bell System circuits to carry your voice to any telephone in the world via the Internet. If you’re not familiar with VoIP phone service, you’ll be interested in this new technology that’s giving traditional phone companies a run for their money.

Not only is VoIP phone service reliable, it costs 50-60 percent less than conventional telephone service. And most VoIP services give you free long distance calling throughout North America from any phone in the USA.

When you order VoIP phone service you receive a small “Analog Telephone Adapter” box that connects your telephone to your high speed Internet connection. This little adapter box, about the size of a paperback book, is linked to your phone number. Unlike a conventional telephone, where the phone number is fixed in place where the copper wires terminate in your home or office, with VoIP “the phone number is in the adapter box.”

This opens up some fascinating possibilities.