VoIP Broadband Phone Service - The Phone Service of the Future

Okay, I'm going to attempt to keep this as non-technical as possible at first for those of you that are unfamiliar with VoIP Broadband Phone Service. Later, I will try to furnish a little bit more on the technical side of things in order to try and help make things clearer for us all. So for now, if you "techies" will bear with me, I will try to get the rest of us up to speed.

I'm certain that all of us at one time or another have heard the term VoIP. If you haven't, or didn't already know, VoIP means "Voice over Internet Protocol." What it does is it transmits voice over the internet and other IP networks. Since around 2004, mass marketed VoIP services have been gaining in popularity. Much like ordinary land line or cell phone services, VoIP services can offer both inbound and outbound calls. A big benefit of VoIP broadband phone service providers, though, is that many of them offer unrestricted calling plans for a flat fee that are much less expensive than regular or cell phone plans for domestic calling. In addition, many VoIP service providers also offer cheaper calls to other countries, too.

Some of the different ways that you can get started using VoIP technology are as follows:

' As far as their functionality is concerned, existing VoIP phones are comparable to cell phones, but they rely on an IP connection to transmit their calls instead. Service plans for VoIP phones can be acquired from VoIP service providers.

' A "softphone" is essentially an internet phone with software installed on it that enables you to make VoIP calls without any additional hardware necessary.

' A typical telephone jack can be used to place calls with VoIP, too, as long as you have a broadband internet connection and an analog adapter. These services are similar totraditional land line services and are offered at a flat, inexpensive rate, etc.

I would say that one of the main advantages when it comes to VoIP broadband phone service, when compared to regular or cell phone services, is the cost. Normally, regular and mobile phone services are typically billed by the minute, but VoIP service is billed by the amount of data that's being transmitted. These costs are usually much cheaperthan the per-minute rates the other types of phone services charge. Another benefit is that VoIP phone services are normally much more flexible than the other types of phone services. With traditional land line service you would have to have additional lines installed in order to place multiple calls at the same time over the same system. Not so with VoIP service. This benefit, combined with lower prices, is causing many businesses to switch over to VoIP. In addition, VoIP services do not depend upon a set location the way that traditional landlines do. Internet phones ("softphones") and VoIP phones can be used anywhere they're able to link up and transmit through an IP. In the case of softphones, they also have the capability to be integrated with other types of services available on the Internet, such as sending files or other data and video conferencing.

Now as good as this all sounds, VoIP services are susceptible to some problems of their own, like delays that can be caused by congestion. If there is too much data being sent over an IP network, delays or loss of quality can result due to the fixed maximum capacity of the network. Another potential problem that could take place is since VoIP service depends upon the same types of routers that other Internet connections use, they can be susceptible to power failures. Since VoIP gets its power from the router, if there's a power failure then obviously the service won't work. As far as I'm concerned this is only a minor disadvantage that VoIP may have when compared to traditional phone service. Since regular telephones are powered through the phone lines themselves, they are not subjected to power failures and can still function when there's an outage. Now this ceases to be a problem if you just get yourself a battery backup power supply so that in the event of a power outage you don't have to be concerned about losing your service. The backup battery kicks in if the power goes out and keeps the equipment up and running, problem solved!