VOiP is shorthand (and definitely geek speak) for Voice Over Internet Protocol. What that means is that you can use the Internet to transmit your phone conversation. The advantages? You can save money compared to using your traditional telephone service. And, because you're transmitting voice digitally you can have all sorts of features that you either would have paid for or didn't even exist before.

I'm not going out on a very big ledge when I predict that Voice Over IP (VOiP) will be the hottest trend of 2006 (almost as big as the iPod). Parents will use it to talk to their far flung families, significant others will use it to talk when they're separated by continents, and business people will use it across the globe. They'll all save serious money. But for VOiP to "break through" we've got to clear up a few misconceptions.

Myth I: VoIP is for geeks
Well, it was for geeks for a long time. In its infancy (1995) VoIP was available as software that you installed on your computer. It required that you have a modem, microphone, speakers and sound card. It worked, except when it didn't.

Myth II: You have to talk to your computer (with a headset on) to be a VoIP user.
While it's true that you can use your computer's built in microphone and speakers or plug headphones into your computer and talk over the Internet, why would you want to look like someone from NASA's command center. New VoIP systems let you use any ordinary phone in your home to speak over an internet connection. No computer required.

Myth III : You have to buy a special digital phone.
There are special digital Internet phones on the market, but there's no reason you need to rush out to buy them. Any phone you have in your home can work over VOiP with a small attachment that converts the existing analog signal to a digital one.

Myth: IV: You can only talk to people in your VoIP group.
With early VoIP systems you often had to work with the party you wanted to speak to so that they would join the same service. Some services have plans that limit your calls to those people who use the same provider. (This is the equivalent of saying that if you're a Verizon user you can only speak to other Verizon users.) Most people will want to be able to call a phone number and not worry whether it uses the same carrier or not.

Myth V: VoIP service is no different than any other phone service.
The sound quality is every bit as good as with any other type of service. What are improved are services. With VoIP you'll get things like free call forwarding and call blocking for free. You can listen to your voicemail online. You can reroute calls to where they can find you, you can set up automatic dialing and even have simultaneous rings to different phones.

What is your point of view? Please post your thoughts on the discussion board.

Recent Posts:

Warning: main(/web/sites/www.witi.com/htdocs/users/discussion_board/conf_global.php) [function.main]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /system/web/lib/applications/discussion_board/htdocs/users/discussion_board/ssi.php on line 79