What You Need to Know About VOIP

By Jeffrey W Anderson

First of all, unless you're a gadget lover who had the skinny on VOIP long before most people had even heard of it, it's probably a great idea for you to know what VOIP is! With all the acronyms flying around these days, sometimes it's hard to know just what a set of initials stands for. VOIP stands for Voice Over Internet Protocol. VOIP often masquerades by other names as well, such as: IP Telephony, Internet telephony, and digital phone.

Now that you know what VOIP stands for, I'm sure you want to know what it is exactly. VOIP is the latest, hottest trend in telephone service. VOIP makes it possible to have voice conversations over the Internet through the use of Internet phones.

Now this ability to have conversations via your computer has many advantages. One is that it makes it easy for business people to stay connected and in touch. VOIP technology also has the advantage of giving people from around the globe an opportunity to talk directly for generally much less than long distance charges would be. The savings on telephone charges alone make VOIP highly attractive to many people.

While these are great advantages, there is a downside. Because of its newness, VOIP technology is not quite as good overall as ordinary telephone service. Many people who use Internet telephony complain about the reception they get. This technology is rapidly improving, though, and some VOIP providers already have pretty darn good equipment out there.

Too, unless your digital telephone is directly connected to a landline phone company, you will be at the mercy of power outages. There's also a problem with Internet providers going down and leaving you stranded without telephone service. So many experts recommend that you keep a landline or cell phone along with your Internet phone. This, of course, pushes up costs which makes VOIP telephones less desirable to many folks.

Another downside to VOIP technology that's very important to know about is that it is susceptible to identity theft. Because many VOIP service providers do not have secure lines—yet—your calls can be listened to by people you aren't aware are listening in.

It's a little like the old days when the telephone was first invented and mass produced. People called through what were call “party” lines that meant anyone could listen—and they did. We humans just can't resist eavesdropping. Today, though, this can also make it easy for those unscrupulous, well, thugs to rip off your personal and confidential information. So when choosing a VOIP service provider, you want to be sure you're getting the most secure line as possible.

And just like when the telephone was first invented, VOIP technology will take some time to perfect. But it is technology that's here to stay. As people get busier and are attempting to multi-task everything, being able to have a telephone conversation while you continue to work on your computer, all in one simple package, is just too good to resist. So the one thing you can count on is that in a year or two, VOIP telephones will be practically as common as cell phones—and probably with equipment and service plans available that are as good as cell phone manufacturers and service providers have now.

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