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For a long time, if you wanted to speak with someone who wasn’t within walking or driving distance, your only option was to use the telephone. However, this quickly changed as the popularity of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology grew. Now, phone service providers aren’t the only ones you can turn to when you need to make an important call.

The biggest reason that VoIP is making gains is the much-cheaper costs. Whereas traditional telephone systems require additional hardware and infrastructure in the form of the phone itself and the line it’s connected to, VoIP only requires a computer, tablet or smartphone  and an internet connection- something the majority of people already have. This is especially relevant in business situations, where additional phone lines require running more cables and possibly purchasing many, many phones.

Even better, to add additional lines using VoIP, all that’s needed is a request to the provider; there’s no extra infrastructure required.

For personal use, there are also many times that VoIP turns out to be cheaper than traditional phone service. For example, long distance and international calls are generally more cost-effective on a VoIP system than on a regular phone. This leads to VoIP being commonly used for important long distance calls. Family members who are far away can keep in contact for cheap by utilizing this technology – in fact, it’s so prevalent that a list was even released detailing all the ways you can use VoIP to talk with your mother on Mother’s Day if she’s far away. Often, these calls cost only pennies per minute.

Add to these benefits the ability to use VoIP from a mobile device, and the advantages multiply. No longer to users have to be limited to talk time on their mobile devices or the high rates for long distance calls from a cellphone. Mobile VoIP uses an Internet connection through the cellphone to connect calls instead of the voice network.

Recent research from Infonetics (News - Alert) found the global VoIP services market reached $63 billion in 2012, an increase of 9 percent from 2011.  In addition to this growth, the study also found new geographic regions opening up to welcome VoIP technologies and the many benefits it provides.