Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), is in simple terms, a phone used through the Internet or a local network. It uses the Internet protocol (IP) to transmit voice communications from one person to another over a network. VoIP offers many benefits over traditional phone systems, which is why more and more individuals and corporations are switching to VoIP today.
The biggest advantage with VoIP is the convenience it offers. Users can communicate with each other irrespective of their physical location because all that they need is an Internet connection. There are no more switches and wires to worry about and this gives a greater degree of flexibility to users. From the standpoint of a business, it improves employee productivity because they are always connected. More and more companies are looking to tap into this advantage to prevent loss of revenue from missed calls.
VoIP empowers users to make their own choices. They can decide how they want to use their phone service – it can be audio-only or an audio and video conversation. Similarly, they can choose the device they want and it can be a traditional phone, laptop or mobile device. These choices make it possible for users to customize VoIP according to their personal tastes and preferences. All this is not possible with traditional telephone system and this is another reason for the growing popularity of VoIP phones.
With VoIP, all the popular forms of communication converge together. Whether users opt to communicate through e-mail, audio calls or video conferencing, they can do it from a single source. This convergence reduces operational costs for the company because they only have to pay for the Internet service. Maintenance is easy and cost-effective.
For all these reasons and many more, VoIP is making rapid inroads into the realm of telephones. It won’t be long before it completely takes over the traditional telephone systems.
Edited by Rory J. Thompson