Though we are going through a telecommunication revolution, most of the houses and offices have relied on the same old plain telephone service for most a century. But this is not going to extend like this any more, with the many advanced facilities that have started and being offered at lower costs.

Voice Over Internet Protocol, a technology which has been there since a decade, simply used data networks to deliver voice conversations. This technology was commonly used for making international calls to the Asian countries and to reduce the exorbitant call charges. People could make calls from their PC with the help of a microphone. But these calls could be made only to computers with the similar facility. Then the Net2Phone service came in, which enables to make calls from a computer to a phone. The main draw back was the quality and reliability was quite poor.

To overcome the drawback of Net2Phone, a free service called Skype was introduced, which was an updated version of computer to computer calling. Better quality and easy to use on desktops and laptops were its advantages but it could be used only between other Skype users and cannot be considered as a substitute for a real phone.

Calls can be connected with a box that plugs into the broadband or home network connection and converts the voice signal for Internet transmission. One or more phones can be connected with the converter box, and when the handset is picked the dial tone can be heard. Companies are adopting VOIP where the old phone systems from PBX vendors were replaced. Earlier companies had to buy all the equipments provided by the PBX vendors, with limited choices and high prices. But, VOIP offers companies to mix and match phone sets with the switches. Advanced services offers are also provided like, full featured office extension phone in the home office or secure instant messaging without paying anybody. Usually calls are connected from the VOIP systems directly to the local phone company line, but they may also use the technology to link branch offices over Internet or private networks.

Though there are many services offered, it has a few demerits also like, if power or internet connect is lost, then the phone services also goes down. A cell phone may be used as a back up.

Source: Business Week Online