VoIP - Just What is it I Need to Know About it?

Well if you read this article you won't any more. What is more I am not going to baffle you with a battery of technical terms and the like. No need as it is all so simple really.

Once you understand about what VoIP is you will be really keen to use it.

The first and very last bit of a hint of technical terms is what the letters VoIP mean. It means Voice over Internet Protocol. Wow, now we have got over that we can talk about just what it is all about. Basically, all this means is that, instead of your voice being sent down a line in the old way down landlines, it is now being sent down an internet connection.

There are a couple of differences between these but basically the internet way is very fast and you voice is sent in little data packages which is converted back to your voice at the other end. The old way was slow so not as economical cost wise. Hence, although you may not have realised it your phone companies have been converting your voice messages to VoIP for some time now. They can handle thousands of conversations at the same time down the same line whereas previously they could not. However, they have been reluctant to reduce prices until the pressure has been put on them recently by new VoIP companies springing up.

So… There we have it. VoIP is just anther way to have a conversation between two or more people. How hard is that to understand?

Now we come to the bit where you have a choice. Do you stick to paying a high price to phone all over the world or do you look for someone to use that will give the same – if not better service much cheaper. I know what I do!

This is where most people start to panic asking the questions – How do you do it? With whom do you do it? Will I need a special phone line? Do I need a special telephone? It's still a mystery to me, who will help me? And so it goes on. Well it is to be understood you would have many questions needing an answer. These changes are very new and like anything new, we fear the unknown until we get some of the answers.

So let us tackle some of the questions here and you will see that there is really nothing over complicated at all. After all, at the end of the day you are going to save a lot of your money. Afford to be more in contact with your friends without worrying how much the call is going to cost you.

I have written a lot of published articles that are reproduced around the world so I can give you the guidance that you may need. Let's find the answers to some of those questions.

How do you do it? First you need to decide on a VoIP service to go with. There are a lot around, some based on original VoIP platforms and have developed an impressive array of web facilities. Such a Skype, Verizon and other well known's. But there are a number of new VoIP service providers that are pushing forward the VoIP technology. These are patenting these new platforms /features. Check my resource at the end.

With whom do you do it? Sounds the same as the first question; however what you want is someone to guide you in both your choice and in understanding how to use the VoIP features. Better a service that provides you with a personal helper.

Will I need a special phone line? No. You will be using just your normal cell phone or telephone line.

Do I need a special telephone? No. Not necessarily so unless you wish to have an I P telephone. This all depends on how far you want to go in ease of use. Alternatively to are able to use an adapter to which you plug in your normal phone. However, the service can be used without special setup, using your ordinary landline, computer, or a cell phone. You do not even have to have a connection to the internet with companies such as Global1touch. You simply dial a special number, disconnect. You will get a call back asking which number you wish to call. You just enter your destination number and you are connected via VoIP service. There is no cost involved with your normal landline or cell phone service provider. In fact on a cell phone you will not even lose any ‘free' time minutes.

It's still a mystery to me? At this point I hope you now see that it is in anyones reach to use. Additionally if you have a person helping you then you have no worries at all. Did you know that VoIP customers worldwide are doubling year on year, so it cannot be that hard.

I recommend VoIP to all and particularly to families where a huge saving can be made. Realizing the massive saving to be had, small to medium businesses are taking up VoIP services rapidly. The advent of VoIP on the move with cell phones is playing a large part in this. Contacting personnel via cell phones locally and internationally runs up large communication accounts, sometimes on top of actual cell phone package deals. Using VoIP slashes the costs dramatically.

I hope that this article has helped you to feel more comfortable about considering adding VoIP to your personal communications package.

I encourage you to look at my web sites where I can assist you further.

By M E Moore

http://www.megamarketingsystems.com/flashads/adnews.htm

http://www.global1touch.com/English/ProductGlobalLocal.aspx

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=M_E_Moore

Read More..

VoIP Phone System - Do You Want These 5 Advantages For Your Business?

New technologies such as IP Telephony don't just replace previous ones but allow much greater functionality, increased productivity, enhanced customer service and lower costs than prior technologies. Here are just a few ideas for you to ponder.

Your IP Telephone System provides the following advantages:

* Seamless extension dialing between all your locations on your private network, or even over the public Internet, is relatively easy and much less costly than traditional means. All your offices can be "tied together" to act as one large office no matter where in the world they are located. This also provides the advantage of eliminating long distance charges between your locations.

* IP Telephony creates lower cost and greater functionality advantages from carrier services. With IP Telephony you can connect all your offices together on your own private network. Or you can use the "quasi-private" network of a carrier.

This means you use one service provider to provide the voice trunks at each office. Your voice traffic between offices stays on the private network of the carrier. Your voice traffic never has to travel through the public internet.

If done correctly you have the advantage of carrying your voice traffic over the same network that carries your data traffic between offices but through the service provider you have Quality of Service to give voice priority over data. This will also give you a lower cost than the traditional means of a totally private network connecting your offices.

* Easily and economically connecting home based workers. Your home based worker can be easily connected to your office phone system with a high speed connection such as DSL or cable Internet. Your worker takes a phone from your office and connects it to that Internet connection. Or your worker uses a "soft phone" which is software on their computer at home that functions like a telephone.

That physical phone or soft phone, located anywhere in the world, is now a phone on your office phone system with all the individual settings that worker has on their phone at the office. Someone calls your office and the call automatically rings the phone at your worker's home. The caller doesn't know where the person they're calling is located. This arrangement can even work for a small one, two, or three person branch office.

* Easily and economically connecting traveling workers. Imagine you're traveling and staying at a hotel with a high speed Internet connection. You have a "soft phone" on your laptop computer. You can use a headset on your laptop or a handset that plugs into a USB port on your computer. The handset acts just like the handset on your phone at the office. You can now receive and make calls through your soft phone just like you're at your office. Callers will ring through to your soft phone.

You can be located anywhere in the world and the person you call or calls you won't know where you 4are. If you're going to be away for an extended period of time, you may even want to take a regular office phone and set it up on your Internet connection. This arrangement makes use of IP Telephony for your office combined with VOIP using the Internet. IP Telephony makes all this easily possible at a lower cost than traditional systems.

Home based and traveling workers can also go into your office, in fact any of your office locations, and simply "log in" to your phone system just like they log in to your computer system. Once logged in all their phone settings are automatically provided to the phone in which they log in. This just wasn't easy or feasible to do economically prior to IP Telephony.

* Software upgrades are much easier and can be performed by you instead of paying the telephone equipment vendor to do them.

There are many more benefits to IP Telephony. This brief overview should be enough to peak your interest to continue your investigation. You don't need to make a total swap out of your current phone system. It is possible to gradually introduce an IP Telephone System into your organization and interface it to legacy systems.

Don't just improve the way you currently do business! Explore the strategic business applications and implications of IP Telephony. New technologies such as IP Telephony don't just replace previous ones but allow much greater functionality, increased productivity, enhanced customer service and lower costs than prior technologies.

Expand the possibilities of conducting your business in ways you never thought possible. All major phone system manufacturers are investing their research and development dollars into development of their IP Phone Systems. Thousands of companies have already converted to it. There must be a reason or two or twenty.

Specifically, we consult on IP Telephone System Decisions, Service Provider Decisions for Voice and Data Services, and Services Audits to Inventory All Services and Discover Unused Services. We do all this within a framework of Vendor-Neutral Consulting.

Copyright 2007 Mass Strategic Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved Worldwide. Reprint Rights: You may reprint this article as long as you do not edit the article in any way. You must leave all of the links active and include the full author name credit with company profile.

by: Ed Mass

About The Author

Ed Mass, President, Mass Strategic Communications, Inc., a telecommunications consulting firm since 1993. Visit http://www.voip-telephone-system.com and http://www.masscom.com. The firm specializes in Transforming Telecommunications from a Tactical Tool To a Strategic Business Resource.

Article Source : www.articlecity.com

Read More..