What is VoIP?
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is a type of telecommunication technology that allows you to make and receive calls over a high speed cable or DSL Internet connection, and has the significant advantage of being much cheaper per call than regular analogue telephone services. With some Internet phone services it can even be free to call other online numbers within the same provider network, and with online telephone accounts you can call VoIP numbers, landlines and mobile phones anywhere in the world (excluding countries such as the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia where VoIP has been banned).
How Does It Work
High speed Internet connections can stream vast amounts of data in and out of your computer router instantaneously, allowing you to browse websites, watch videos and listen to music all through your computer, and all VoIP does is adapt the spoken voice into audio data that can be streamed over an Internet connection to another destination point, so that you can hold a conversation with another person just like in a standard telephone call. You can even use regular telephone handsets, which can be fitted with adapters so that they can be plugged into a router instead of an analogue phone point. Adaptors are typically provided by the Internet phone provider, and you will not have to have your computer switched on as the call will be made using your telephone handset and the router. Because high speed Internet connections can transfer such large amounts of data you can speak on a VoIP telephone whilst still using your computer to browse online, without causing any interference to either service.
You can take advantage of the low cost national and international calls from VoIP services as long as you have a high speed Internet connection, and you can also still retain your analogue service if you want to, simply unplugging your telephone handset and switching it between the two services without the need to buy any new equipment.