The VoIP Basics - We're Not Assuming Anything

Sometimes it’s good to go back to basics, especially with something like VoIP. That might be one of those terms you’ve heard bandied about but aren’t really sure what it means -- or why everyone thinks it’s such a big deal.

Thanks to the good folks at MintTec for providing a good rundown of the basics:

VoIP technology has gone through different phases to reach the current stage -- Internet phone technology. In comparison with traditional phone systems, running phone calls over the Internet via phone systems like VoIP is far better at things like saving money on phone bills. It’s possible to fully replace traditional phone technology with it – and today, more and more businesses are doing just that.

With VoIP, all communication is carried across the Internet and not the public switched telephone network (PSTN). “With traditional phone services,” MintTec officials said, “limited communication was possible, whereas in case of Internet telephony, unlimited communications and, as a result, more possibilities for business growth become the part of the game.”

For example, conference calling, video conferencing, faxing and emailing can all be done from a single place using a VoIP technology. You can’t do this using the traditional telephone system. So you can see the advantages for business.

With VoIP you can also get features like video conferencing, call forwarding, IVR and Caller ID for either free or pretty low cost, and thus reduce the operational costs even more. And you don’t need separate networks for data and voice operations with VoIP, because extra bandwidth, online researching and e-commerce activities can all be carried out in it, provided you’ve got a fairly robust Internet connection.