VoIP, also known as Voice over Internet Protocol, has become more prominent as it continues to gain popularity amongst an entire spectrum of uses and users, from business to residential. To the uninitiated, VoIP might conjure images of Vonage commercials, but with the availability of services that are customizable to a client’s specific needs, and advent of V.VoIP (Video Voice over Internet Protocol), its uses far exceed being able to call your relatives in India or Germany.
Business services can range from a hosted, offsite service to a self-hosted, onsite service. They can cover anywhere from a single line for a small home office to a full PBX style phone system where calls can be routed from a main line. Larger systems will need to be able to handle a bigger data load, and caution should be taken to ensure that the internet provider doesn’t have a bandwidth cap in place.
In the mobile and PC arena, standalone applications utilizing V.VoIP are available via app stores such as iTunes and Google Play, or as software that can be downloaded to a PC over the web. New services are cropping up all the time, but there are some popular “staples” currently offered: Google has Hangouts, Apple has Facetime, and Skype and the aforementioned Vonage have been providing service for some time now. Amazon now even offers a new Mayday service through its latest Kindle tablets.
There is also a new era opening up with VoIP integration. Last Tuesday, the new FCC chairman Tom Wheeler announced that there are plans to convert the existing copper wire based phone system over to a digital system that can handle video, voice, and other larger amounts of data.
In a recent FCC blog post, he said, “History has shown that new networks catalyze innovation, investment, ideas, and ingenuity. Their spillover effects can transform society – think of the creation of industrial organizations and the standardized time zones that followed in the wake of the railroad and telegraph.”
As time progresses, the ability to utilize VoIP will both lower costs and further connect us to the world around us. Or, as Mr. Wheeler says, “This is what I have called the Fourth Network Revolution, and it is a good thing.”
