VoIP was adopted by the following fields.
1. Consumer market
A major advancement that began in 2004 was the introduction of mass-market VoIP services that utilize existing broadband Internet access, by which subscribers place and receive telephone calls in much the same way as they would through the public switched telephone network (PSTN). Full-service VoIP phone companies give inbound and outbound service with direct inbound dialing. Numerous company offer unlimited domestic calling for a monthly subscription fee. This frequently includes international calls to specific countries. Phone calls between subscribers of the same provider are usually free when flat-fee service is not available. A VoIP phone is necessary to connect to a VoIP service provider. This can be implemented in several ways:
• Dedicated VoIP phones connect specifically to the IP system using technologies such as wired Ethernet or Wi-Fi. They are typically designed in the style of traditional digital business phones.
• An analog telephone adapter is a device that connects to the network and actualizes the electronics and firmware to operate a conventional analog telephone attached through a modular phone jack. Some residential Internet gateways and cable modems have this built in capacity.
• A soft phone is application software installed on a networked computer that is equipped with a microphone and speaker, or headset. The application typically presents a dial pad and display field to the user to operate the application by mouse clicks or keyboard input.
2. PSTN and mobile network providers
It is becoming increasingly common for telecommunications providers to use VoIP telephony over dedicated and public IP networks to connect switching centers and to interconnect with other telephony network providers; this is often referred to as "IP backhaul."
Smart phones and Wi-Fi-enabled mobile phones may have SIP clients built into the firmware or available as an application download.
3. Corporate use
Because of the bandwidth efficiency and low costs that VoIP technology can provide, businesses are shifting from traditional copper-wire telephone systems to VoIP systems to minimize their monthly phone costs.
VoIP solutions aimed at businesses have evolved into unified communications services that treat all communications—phone calls, faxes, voice mail, e-mail, Web conferences, and more—as discrete units that can all be delivered via any means and to any handset, including cell phones. Two kinds of competitors are competing in this space: one set is focused on VoIP for medium to large enterprises, while another is targeting the small-to-medium business (SMB) market.
VoIP allows both voice and data communications to be run over a single network, which can significantly lessen infrastructure costs.
The prices of extensions on VoIP are lower than for PBX and key systems. VoIP switches may run on commodity hardware, such as personal computers. Rather than closed architectures, these devices rely on standard interfaces.
VoIP devices have simple, intuitive user interfaces, so users can often make simple system configuration changes. Dual-mode phones enable users to continue their conversations as they move between an outside cellular service and an internal Wi-Fi network, so that it is no longer necessary to carry both a desktop phone and a cell phone. Maintenance becomes simpler as there are fewer devices to oversee.
Skype, which originally marketed itself as a service among friends, has begun to cater to businesses, providing free-of-charge connections between any users on the Skype network and connecting to and from ordinary PSTN telephones for a charge.
Friday, June 20, 2014
Thursday, June 19, 2014
VoIP Trends in 2014
This year, 2014, businesses keep looking for ways to augment their business systems and, wherever possible, cut expenses. Consequently, this will be the year that various businesses make the easy move from their traditional phone system to a business VoIP phone system.
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology has been so completely demonstrated and upgraded lately that it’s not a big surprise that more businesses are opting for VoIP phone systems. In fact, Infonetics projects global business VoIP revenue to increase at a continued rate of seven percent from 2012-2017.
VoIP telephone service is presently utilized across most industry sectors, with leading providers offering features that are simply not available or feasible with legacy phone systems. As we watch the VoIP boom continue throughout the year, here are a few top trends to check out for:
Mobile VoIP Gathers Momentum
These days, if your business doesn’t have mobile capability, it’s likely at a disadvantage. Between supporting the work at home movement and enabling employees on the road, without mobile capability you risk a less-than-content workforce and missed business opportunities. Mobile VoIP allows employees to enjoy all the features they need on a phone at a lower cost than a traditional provider can offer. And with the seamless nature of quality mobile applications, no one should be able to distinguish between an employee working from home and one in the office. The leading VoIP providers have also bundled services together to increase access to mobile features and deliver further savings.
Hosted VoIP: Not Just for SMBs Anymore
Hosted VoIP business solutions remain ideal for small-to-medium sized businesses (SMBs) that lack the resources to manage an on-premise VoIP system. And because of the efficiencies – such as no requirements for hardware or ongoing staff IT involvement – even some larger organizations are choosing “the hosted model” as their preferred solution for business VoIP. As a result, they’re reducing up-front expenses and eliminating the hassle and cost of maintenance and upgrades. With a hosted solution, for instance, businesses no longer have to deal with paying bills to multiple vendors for multiple systems – one vendor does everything. Unlike traditional phone systems, VoIP systems are scalable, allowing companies to pay for only the services they are using; as the business grows it can add features as needed. As more companies weigh the advantages, hosted business VoIP will live up to projections and continue to grow, even among some larger companies.
Seamless Integration with Best-in-class Business Tools
Increasingly, businesses are fully committing to technology that provides their employees new competitive advantages. With the advent of powerful desktop applications, for example, VoIP business phone systems are now providing features such as desktop plugins that help companies leverage in new ways the business-class tools they already use (think Salesforce.com, LinkedIn and Outlook). With these desktop plugins, workers can review relevant customer information and communication history; instantly access business contacts; and evaluate important data right from their own desks during a call. This advanced business phone integration helps streamline customer relationship management, billing operations and more – while increasing overall productivity.
These are just a few of the many exciting developments in the world of VoIP. Whether your business is looking to do a full rip and replace of a legacy system or simply increase the value of your existing VoIP system, staying abreast of the new opportunities available could make a big difference to your bottom line this year.
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology has been so completely demonstrated and upgraded lately that it’s not a big surprise that more businesses are opting for VoIP phone systems. In fact, Infonetics projects global business VoIP revenue to increase at a continued rate of seven percent from 2012-2017.
VoIP telephone service is presently utilized across most industry sectors, with leading providers offering features that are simply not available or feasible with legacy phone systems. As we watch the VoIP boom continue throughout the year, here are a few top trends to check out for:
Mobile VoIP Gathers Momentum
These days, if your business doesn’t have mobile capability, it’s likely at a disadvantage. Between supporting the work at home movement and enabling employees on the road, without mobile capability you risk a less-than-content workforce and missed business opportunities. Mobile VoIP allows employees to enjoy all the features they need on a phone at a lower cost than a traditional provider can offer. And with the seamless nature of quality mobile applications, no one should be able to distinguish between an employee working from home and one in the office. The leading VoIP providers have also bundled services together to increase access to mobile features and deliver further savings.
Hosted VoIP: Not Just for SMBs Anymore
Hosted VoIP business solutions remain ideal for small-to-medium sized businesses (SMBs) that lack the resources to manage an on-premise VoIP system. And because of the efficiencies – such as no requirements for hardware or ongoing staff IT involvement – even some larger organizations are choosing “the hosted model” as their preferred solution for business VoIP. As a result, they’re reducing up-front expenses and eliminating the hassle and cost of maintenance and upgrades. With a hosted solution, for instance, businesses no longer have to deal with paying bills to multiple vendors for multiple systems – one vendor does everything. Unlike traditional phone systems, VoIP systems are scalable, allowing companies to pay for only the services they are using; as the business grows it can add features as needed. As more companies weigh the advantages, hosted business VoIP will live up to projections and continue to grow, even among some larger companies.
Seamless Integration with Best-in-class Business Tools
Increasingly, businesses are fully committing to technology that provides their employees new competitive advantages. With the advent of powerful desktop applications, for example, VoIP business phone systems are now providing features such as desktop plugins that help companies leverage in new ways the business-class tools they already use (think Salesforce.com, LinkedIn and Outlook). With these desktop plugins, workers can review relevant customer information and communication history; instantly access business contacts; and evaluate important data right from their own desks during a call. This advanced business phone integration helps streamline customer relationship management, billing operations and more – while increasing overall productivity.
These are just a few of the many exciting developments in the world of VoIP. Whether your business is looking to do a full rip and replace of a legacy system or simply increase the value of your existing VoIP system, staying abreast of the new opportunities available could make a big difference to your bottom line this year.
VoIP’s Future
The success of Skype produced a group of competitors, some of whom made aggressive advances into the conventional telecoms market. The appearance of ‘Skype Phones’ and private and residential VoIP plans offered by some companies threaten to render copper wire services outdated. Many large corporations have already moved over to VoIP for business telephony, while a new wave of Smartphone VoIP applications could undermine even mobile telephone calls. As internet connections keep on improving, VoIP appears set to further encroach on conventional telephone administrators and may yet create itself as the telecommunications standard for the 21st century.
VoIP’s continued rise both in private and business sectors is not a surprise, as the quality, convenience and adaptability of VoIP services continues to rise. As indicated by Infonetics (News - Alert) Research, there were more than 203 million worldwide residential VoIP subscribers in the first half of 2013. Globally, residential and business VoIP services rose three percent to $33 billion.
VoIP’s continued rise both in private and business sectors is not a surprise, as the quality, convenience and adaptability of VoIP services continues to rise. As indicated by Infonetics (News - Alert) Research, there were more than 203 million worldwide residential VoIP subscribers in the first half of 2013. Globally, residential and business VoIP services rose three percent to $33 billion.
VOIP Technology: The History
In less than two decades, Voice over Internet Protocol or VoIP (VoIP) has revolutionized the telecommunications industry. While mobile phones have made the headlines as they gradually evolved from expensive bricks to pocket supercomputers, in the background VoIP has helped to knock down barriers in international communication, providing a genuine alternative to telephone calls made using traditional telecoms infrastructure and providing near-universal access to cheap calls for anyone with a computer and an internet connection.
Early Days
The first recognizable VoIP software was launched back in the early days of the modern internet in 1995. Though primitive by today’s standards, VocalTec’s ‘Internet Phone’ service was revolutionary for its time. A hit among early adopters, Internet Phone’s success encouraged networking hardware providers such as Cisco and Lucent to develop their own corporate VoIP products, designed to replace outdated business telephony solutions. Domestic users, unfortunately, were hampered by the technological limitations of the time; slow connection speeds and poor quality audio codecs were serious obstacles that needed to be overcome before VoIP could make the jump to the mainstream.
The Broadband Revolution
The arrival of affordable broadband internet connections in most western cities by the early 2000s was crucial to the proliferation of VoIP and internet telephony services. For the first time, users had sufficient bandwidth to use higher quality codecs that approached the fidelity of normal telephone calls and could run VoIP services concurrently with browsers, instant messenger programs and even games without their internet connections grinding to a halt. The release of newer versions of Microsoft Windows and Mac OS helped to overcome early hardware and compatibility headaches, withplug-and-play headsets taking much of the hassle out of online voice chat. The stage was set for a revolution; all that was needed was the right software to bring VoIP to the masses.
Enter Skype
Skype first came to the public’s attention with the launch of beta software in August 2003 and quickly established itself as the de facto standard for internet voice communications. The Skype application allowed users to make computer-to-computer calls for free and also included a rudimentary instant messenger program to allow text communication. The company rapidly rolled out new services that allowed users to call landlines and mobile phones from Skype at greatly reduced costs and by the end of 2005 had integrated video chat into its software. With the fundamentals in place, Skype was firmly established as the market leader for cheap calls online and its service was seen as a benchmark for other operators.
Early Days
The first recognizable VoIP software was launched back in the early days of the modern internet in 1995. Though primitive by today’s standards, VocalTec’s ‘Internet Phone’ service was revolutionary for its time. A hit among early adopters, Internet Phone’s success encouraged networking hardware providers such as Cisco and Lucent to develop their own corporate VoIP products, designed to replace outdated business telephony solutions. Domestic users, unfortunately, were hampered by the technological limitations of the time; slow connection speeds and poor quality audio codecs were serious obstacles that needed to be overcome before VoIP could make the jump to the mainstream.
The Broadband Revolution
The arrival of affordable broadband internet connections in most western cities by the early 2000s was crucial to the proliferation of VoIP and internet telephony services. For the first time, users had sufficient bandwidth to use higher quality codecs that approached the fidelity of normal telephone calls and could run VoIP services concurrently with browsers, instant messenger programs and even games without their internet connections grinding to a halt. The release of newer versions of Microsoft Windows and Mac OS helped to overcome early hardware and compatibility headaches, withplug-and-play headsets taking much of the hassle out of online voice chat. The stage was set for a revolution; all that was needed was the right software to bring VoIP to the masses.
Enter Skype
Skype first came to the public’s attention with the launch of beta software in August 2003 and quickly established itself as the de facto standard for internet voice communications. The Skype application allowed users to make computer-to-computer calls for free and also included a rudimentary instant messenger program to allow text communication. The company rapidly rolled out new services that allowed users to call landlines and mobile phones from Skype at greatly reduced costs and by the end of 2005 had integrated video chat into its software. With the fundamentals in place, Skype was firmly established as the market leader for cheap calls online and its service was seen as a benchmark for other operators.
Thursday, April 24, 2014
Advantages for Choosing Voice over IP
With Voice over IPas Telnovo’s line of business, let us discuss the advantages of Voice over IP.
Voice over
IP (VoIP) was developed in order to provide access to voice communication in any place around the world. In most places, you know voice communication is quite costly. Consider making a phone call to a person living in a country half the globe away. The first thing you might think of in this case is your phone bill, right? VoIP solves this problem and many others.
There are of course a few drawbacks attached to the use of VoIP, as is the case with any new technology, but the advantages largely outbalance these. Let's explore below the benefits of VoIP and see how it can improve your home or business voice communication.
It saves a lot of money
If you don’t use VoIP for voice communication, then you are most certainly using the good old phone line (PSTN – Packet-Switched Telephone Network). On a PSTN line, time is really money. You actually pay for each minute you spend communicating on the phone. International calls are much more expensive. Since VoIP uses the Internet as backbone, the only cost you have when using it is the monthly Internet bill to your ISP. Of course you need broadband Internet access, like ADSL, with a decent speed. In fact, unlimited 24/7 ADSL Internet service is what most people use today, and this causes your monthly cost to be of a fixed amount. You can speak as much as you wish on VoIP and the connection cost will still be the same.
It is being used by more than two persons
On the phone line, only two persons can speak at a time. But with VoIP, you can setup a conference with a whole team communicating in real time, even if all of you are in different places around the world. And in addition to this, more calls can be handled on one access line.
It has cheap user hardware and software
If you are an Internet user wishing to use VoIP for voice communication, the only additional hardware you require besides your computer and Internet connection are a sound card, speakers and a microphone. These stuff are quite cheap. There exist several software packages downloadable from the Internet, which you can install and use for the purpose. Examples of such applications are the well-known Skype and Kakao Talk. You do not actually need a telephone set, which can be quite expensive, along with the underlying equipment, especially when you have a phone network.
It has abundant, Interesting and Useful Features
Using VoIP also means benefitting from its abundant features which can make your VoIP experience very rich and sophisticated, both for personal and for your business. You are thus better equipped for call management through VoIP.
It contains more than voice
VoIP is based on the Internet Protocol (IP), which is in fact, along with TCP (Transmission Control Protocol), the basic underlying protocol for the Internet. By virtue of this, VoIP also handles media types other than voice: you can transfer images, video and text along with the voice. For example, you can speak to someone while sending her files or even showing yourself by just using a web cam.
It is more efficient use of bandwidth
It was shown in some studies that about 50% of a voice conversation is in silence. VoIP fills the ‘empty’ silence spaces with data so that bandwidth in data communication channels is not wasted. In other words, a user is not given bandwidth when he is not talking, and this bandwidth is used efficiently for other bandwidth consumers. Moreover, the ability to remove redundancy in some speech patterns add up to the efficiency of calls.
It has flexible network layout
The underlying network for VoIP does not need to be of a particular layout or topology. This makes it possible for an organization to make use of the power of proven technologies. VoIP can also be used over wireless networks like Wi-Fi.
You can do tele-working
If you work in an organization using an intranet or extranet, you can still access your office from home through VoIP. You can convert your home into a segment of the office and remotely use the voice, fax and data services of your workplace through the organization’s intranet. The portable nature of the VoIP technology is causing it to gain popularity as the trend is towards portable commodities. Portable hardware is becoming more and more common, as are portable services, and VoIP fits in well.
Fax over IP is reliable and not costly
The problems of fax services using PSTN are high cost for long distances, quality decrease in the analog signals and incompatibility between communicating machines. Real-time fax transmission on VoIP simply uses a fax interface to convert the data into packets and ensures complete delivery of the data in a very reliable way. With VoIP, there is finally not even the need for a fax machine for sending and receiving fax.
It has a more productive software development
VoIP is able to combine different data types and to make routing and signaling more flexible and strong. As a result, network application developers will find it easier to develop and organize emerging applications for data communication using VoIP. Likewise, the possibility of implementing VoIP software in web browsers and servers gives a more productive and competitive edge to e-commerce and customer service applications.
IP (VoIP) was developed in order to provide access to voice communication in any place around the world. In most places, you know voice communication is quite costly. Consider making a phone call to a person living in a country half the globe away. The first thing you might think of in this case is your phone bill, right? VoIP solves this problem and many others.
There are of course a few drawbacks attached to the use of VoIP, as is the case with any new technology, but the advantages largely outbalance these. Let's explore below the benefits of VoIP and see how it can improve your home or business voice communication.
It saves a lot of money
If you don’t use VoIP for voice communication, then you are most certainly using the good old phone line (PSTN – Packet-Switched Telephone Network). On a PSTN line, time is really money. You actually pay for each minute you spend communicating on the phone. International calls are much more expensive. Since VoIP uses the Internet as backbone, the only cost you have when using it is the monthly Internet bill to your ISP. Of course you need broadband Internet access, like ADSL, with a decent speed. In fact, unlimited 24/7 ADSL Internet service is what most people use today, and this causes your monthly cost to be of a fixed amount. You can speak as much as you wish on VoIP and the connection cost will still be the same.
It is being used by more than two persons
On the phone line, only two persons can speak at a time. But with VoIP, you can setup a conference with a whole team communicating in real time, even if all of you are in different places around the world. And in addition to this, more calls can be handled on one access line.
It has cheap user hardware and software
If you are an Internet user wishing to use VoIP for voice communication, the only additional hardware you require besides your computer and Internet connection are a sound card, speakers and a microphone. These stuff are quite cheap. There exist several software packages downloadable from the Internet, which you can install and use for the purpose. Examples of such applications are the well-known Skype and Kakao Talk. You do not actually need a telephone set, which can be quite expensive, along with the underlying equipment, especially when you have a phone network.
It has abundant, Interesting and Useful Features
Using VoIP also means benefitting from its abundant features which can make your VoIP experience very rich and sophisticated, both for personal and for your business. You are thus better equipped for call management through VoIP.
It contains more than voice
VoIP is based on the Internet Protocol (IP), which is in fact, along with TCP (Transmission Control Protocol), the basic underlying protocol for the Internet. By virtue of this, VoIP also handles media types other than voice: you can transfer images, video and text along with the voice. For example, you can speak to someone while sending her files or even showing yourself by just using a web cam.
It is more efficient use of bandwidth
It was shown in some studies that about 50% of a voice conversation is in silence. VoIP fills the ‘empty’ silence spaces with data so that bandwidth in data communication channels is not wasted. In other words, a user is not given bandwidth when he is not talking, and this bandwidth is used efficiently for other bandwidth consumers. Moreover, the ability to remove redundancy in some speech patterns add up to the efficiency of calls.
It has flexible network layout
The underlying network for VoIP does not need to be of a particular layout or topology. This makes it possible for an organization to make use of the power of proven technologies. VoIP can also be used over wireless networks like Wi-Fi.
You can do tele-working
If you work in an organization using an intranet or extranet, you can still access your office from home through VoIP. You can convert your home into a segment of the office and remotely use the voice, fax and data services of your workplace through the organization’s intranet. The portable nature of the VoIP technology is causing it to gain popularity as the trend is towards portable commodities. Portable hardware is becoming more and more common, as are portable services, and VoIP fits in well.
Fax over IP is reliable and not costly
The problems of fax services using PSTN are high cost for long distances, quality decrease in the analog signals and incompatibility between communicating machines. Real-time fax transmission on VoIP simply uses a fax interface to convert the data into packets and ensures complete delivery of the data in a very reliable way. With VoIP, there is finally not even the need for a fax machine for sending and receiving fax.
It has a more productive software development
VoIP is able to combine different data types and to make routing and signaling more flexible and strong. As a result, network application developers will find it easier to develop and organize emerging applications for data communication using VoIP. Likewise, the possibility of implementing VoIP software in web browsers and servers gives a more productive and competitive edge to e-commerce and customer service applications.
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
How will VoIP work?
Telnovo provides VoIP services - high call quality voice, quick interconnection time and terminations into any country in the world.
If you've never heard of VoIP, get ready to change the way you think about long-distance phone calls. VoIP, or Voice over Internet Protocol, is a method for taking analog audio signals, like the kind you hear when you talk on the phone, and turning them into digital data that can be transmitted over the Internet.
How is this useful? VoIP can turn a standard Internet connection into a way to place free phone calls. The practical result of this is that by using some of the free VoIP software that is available to make Internet phone calls. By doing this, you are bypassing the phone company (and its charges) entirely.
VoIP is an innovative technology that has the potential to completely rework the world's phone systems. But above all else, VoIP is basically a smart "reinvention of the wheel." In this article, we'll explore the principles behind VoIP, its applications and the potential of this emerging technology, which may replace our traditional phone system.
The interesting thing about VoIP is that there is not just one way to place a call. There are three different "flavors" of VoIP service that are commonly used today:
ATA – ATA (analog telephone adaptor) is the simplest and most common used. This allows you to connect a standard phone to your computer or your Internet connection for use with VoIP . The ATA is an analog-to-digital converter. It takes the analog signal from your traditional phone and converts it into digital data for transmission over the Internet. You simply crack the ATA out of the box, plug the cable from your phone that would normally go in the wall socket into the ATA, and you're ready to make VoIP calls. Some ATAs may ship with additional software that is loaded onto the host computer to organize it. But in any case, it's a very simple and easy setup.
IP Phones -- These specialized phones look just like normal phones with a handset, cradle and buttons. But instead of having the standard RJ-11 phone connectors, IP phones have an RJ-45 Ethernet connector. IP phones connect directly to your router and have all the hardware and software necessary right onboard to handle the IP call. Wi-Fi phones can alsoallow subscribing callers to make VoIP calls from any Wi-Fi hot spot.
Computer-to-computer -- This is definitely the easiest way to use VoIP. You don't even have to pay for long-distance calls. There are several companies offering free or very low-cost software that you can use for this type of VoIP. All you need is the software, a microphone, speakers, a sound card and an Internet connection, preferably a fast one like you would get through a cable or DSL modem. Except for your normal monthly ISP fee, there is usually no charge for computer-to-computer calls, no matter the distance. Next, you know exactly how VoIP is being used.
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