If you have used Skype, or Google talk to communicate with family and friends, you have used Voice over IP.  Once upon a time, Voice over IP was the future. With advances in technology, it is very clear that Voice over IP is the Present, so if you don’t know about it, you better learn!

What is VOIP?

The Acronym VOIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol. It refers to the sending of voice messages over the internet.  So when you call your friend through Skype and you speak into your microphone, your voice is compressed into packages and sent over the internet to your friend on the other side of the world.

It is much Cheaper than phone lines, all you really need is a fast internet connection.  The infrastructure needed is readily available, so it is no surprise that Voice over IP is taking over from traditional telephone systems.

Quick overview of Traditional Telephone Systems.

In order to better appreciate the beauty of VOIP, we will give you a brief overview of traditional Telephone Systems.  Before we were sending our voices over the internet, we were using plain old telephones. These telephones had wires that went from the phone to the wall, to the Demarcation point outside the house. Then telephone wires were connected from the demarcation point over the telephone poles all the way to a central office.  There are a number central offices throughout the country, and everybody connects to the telephone system through their central office.  The central office will route calls to other offices and to the final destination based on the rules of the North American Dialing plan.  So you can see it is kind of a handful that requires a lot of infrastructure.  No wonder that VOIP thing is so popular :).

Today you can setup up an internet phone network with little more than a few computers and an IP phone!

In the next chapter, we will provide you with the hardware and software requirements needed to setup your own Voice over IP Network.  So stay tuned and remember………………….Stay Mobile!