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Page 1 of 5 Voice over Internet Protocol (also called VoIP, IP Telephony, Internet telephony, and Digital Phone) is the routing of voice conversations over the Internet or any other IP-based network. The voice data flows over a general-purpose packet-switched network, instead of traditional dedicated, circuit-switched voice transmission lines.
Protocols used to carry voice signals over the IP network are commonly referred to as Voice over IP or VoIP protocols. They may be viewed as commercial realizations of the experimental Network Voice Protocol (1973) invented for the ARPANET.
Voice over IP traffic might be deployed on any IP network, including ones lacking a connection to the rest of the Internet, for instance on a private building-wide LAN.
AdvantagesCost
In general, phone service via VoIP costs less than
equivalent services from traditional sources. Some cost savings are due to using
a single network to carry voice and data, especially where users have an existing
under-utilized network capacity they can use VoIP at no additional cost.
VoIP
phone calls (including international) are widely regarded as free. While there is a
fixed cost for overall Internet service provision, using VoIP itself does not
involve extra charges. Service examples include Google Talk, Gizmo Project, Skype, TheGlobe, Yahoo! Messenger, MSN Messenger, and GossipTel.
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