Guide to VoIP - Part 2 of 4

It has been suggested that Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) could be the long term successor to regular phone calls. So is VoIP as good as it sounds? Just what are the benefits of this new service and are there any disadvantages?

What are the pros and cons of VoIP?

The biggest advantage of VoIP is that it offers significantly cheaper calls than traditional landline services – including, with many services, free international calls.

If you plan to use VoIP to contact other VoIP customers, then call charges are very straightforward – in many cases they are completely free. Clearly therefore, the long term aim is that as VoIP becomes more popular you will be able to contact more and more people using this service, saving significant amounts of money.

Where VoIP is less straightforward is how it pertains to calls that are made or received by people who do not have VoIP. In this case, they are reliant on gateway services.

These gateway providers give you a telephone number which allows you to call people on regular landlines and mobiles, and to receive calls from those numbers too. Unlike VoIP-VoIP services, this type of calling is not free as there is usually a flat monthly fee to pay out.

However, calls made in this manner are generally much cheaper than making landline-landline or mobile-mobile phone calls. This especially applies to the international rates offered by companies such as Skype and Vonage. As the calls are all made over the VoIP data network, it makes no difference whether you are talking to someone in the USA or the UK – the call costs are the same. As a result, most providers offer free international calls to select countries as part of their monthly subscription fee.

VoIP is also extremely beneficial for businesses. Not only does having one supplier for voice and data provide greater efficiency, but it also means computer applications and technologies can be linked which helps to streamline the working environment. If a business operates over several sites, VoIP can make good financial sense as it avoids expensive internal calls – and even if a business operates at just one site, using VoIP can be beneficial when contacting customers.

The major concern with VoIP remains the quality on the lines. However, this fear has greatly decreased in recent years and it is now difficult to tell the difference between a regular phone call and a VoIP to phone network call. Perhaps the biggest problem currently facing VoIP therefore is its lack of familiarity and education on the subject – not enough people know about it to take full advantage of its potential. However, its popularity is increasing and will no doubt continue to do so.