| When I opened Todd Cardin Answering Service | | | | through your local telephone company to the |
| twenty years ago there were not a lot of options | | | | VoIP provider, and then over the Internet to the |
| in phone service. Today there are so many | | | | other parties telephone .The second type is |
| options and choices in telephony that it is mind | | | | software based VoIP phone services, where you |
| boggling. It is confusing living with so many | | | | use a microphone headset plugged into your |
| choices. Even those of us in the | | | | computer and make calls, which are routed |
| telecommunications industry find it impossible to | | | | through your cable modem, by using the |
| keep up with everything. This is especially true for | | | | keyboard. VoIP can also be run over a private |
| voice over IP. | | | | data network. |
| Many people hear the term Voice over IP or | | | | The big advantage of VoIP is that voice |
| broadband telephone service and still are not sure | | | | information sent over the Internet avoids using |
| what that means. VoIP stands for Voice over | | | | the fixed circuitry of traditional telephony |
| Internet Protocol. Using VoIP, voice information is | | | | networks avoiding the tolls charged by traditional |
| converted into digital packets and sent over the | | | | telephone service. |
| Internet, and then converted back into analog | | | | The big disadvantage of VoIP is quality of service. |
| signals before reaching the phone receiver at the | | | | While in theory because packets are sent over |
| other end. This is a growing and new technology | | | | the best route at the time rather than through |
| which will surely expand as the number of | | | | fixed routes, VoIP services would be reliable and |
| broadband connections increase. | | | | consistent, in reality problems such as packet loss, |
| There are two types of VoIP service. The first is | | | | bandwidth and plain old Internet outages make |
| called hardware based VoIP. People using this type | | | | VoIP quality and reliability inconsistent. |
| of VoIP phone services, have their phone fitted | | | | VoIP is the future of telephony and the quality |
| with an adapter that will connect to a high-speed | | | | and reliability will improve and the industry will |
| Internet connection. When a call is made, it goes | | | | explode even further. |