The internet is all around us today whether something as significant as working from home or as meager as watching a movie online, all these things have a hint of the internet in them. That is why it is rightly said that we live in the age of the internet of things. Internet of things is a concept according to which the internet has transcended from just being an intangible service to something which has a physical form and now we see this physical form of the internet being manifested in the shape of these internet-powered gadgets, especially smart devices. VoIP Technology-
The whole concept of smart devices is the living example of the internet of things as without the internet all these devices would be deemed useless. So it can also be perceived that all the smartness of these smart devices comes from the internet. Apart from these smart devices, many other gadgets are also powered over the internet. For instance, if we look at our normal home phone, it might look the same but the underlying technology behind it has completely changed in the past few years.
Many people still don’t know it but the current home phone technology also has its basis over the internet, well, to be precise two technologies are majorly used in home phones of today. Standard copper wiring is the original technology behind a landline phone which is still being used. While the other one is VoIP or Voice over Internet Protocol which is a revolutionary piece of tech that uses the internet for voice transmission.
VoIP technology was already in use but was restricted to apps that allowed audiovisual communication. Now with the introduction of VoIP in home phones, it has revolutionized digital ways of communication. Many big providers are also using this technology in their home phones like Spectrum voice service uses VoIP technology to transport calls over their private network so your calls never get interrupted with the public internet.
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Workings of VoIP
VoIP is the shortened term for voice-over-internet protocol. As the name suggests, this dedicated channel was developed to transfer voice signals as data packets that can be sent through transmission mediums on which the internet data is transmitted. To make it simple, we divide this into two parts where the first one is IP or internet protocol on which all-home internet works while the other part voice-over means the voice of the users.
This works in a way that when a user speaks in the microphone of a VoIP-capable device, it is converted into data packets commonly known as bits. These bits are the main unit of internet bandwidth and data is transmitted as bits in internet carrying mediums like fiber optics. The whole job of this protocol is the conversion of these voice signals into bits so that they can be transferred over the IP or internet protocol.
This conversion, in most cases, downgrades the sound quality in comparison to the traditional landlines but there are many other benefits of VoIP over traditional phone services. These benefits are due to the inclusion of the internet in this technology and we are going to discuss these benefits in detail below.
Benefits of VoIP
We have already discussed the single downside of VoIP that it affects the voice quality but this defect alone is not enough to completely disregard such a powerful technology that has quite a vast range of benefits if observed closely.
Low Costs
The biggest benefit of VoIP is that it is a significantly cheaper service as compared to traditional telephone calling. We all remember that back in the day how costly making an international call was that merely lasted a few minutes. It was enough to break a man’s bank. But today we see that people are continuously calling their relatives overseas. These calls are not only restricted to voice but video communication as well. WhatsApp and Viber are very popular free calling platforms while there are others in the shape of Skype that are priced economically but give users extra control over their calls.
Mobility and Accessibility
One more thing which VoIP has allowed users to do is to make or receive calls regardless of their physical location. Since back in the day home phones were hard-lined and need to be placed in one location. While on the other hand cellphones only used to work in areas where there was cell coverage and in order to use telephony services in another country international roaming was needed which was again a costly thing. VoIP solved all these problems as users can make calls over the internet no matter where they are as long as they have an internet connection. That’s why we see people not changing their numbers even when traveling abroad now.
Advanced Calling Features
With the introduction of the internet to this technology, there have been many new features that are introduced in standard home phones which were not present before. Now there are features like readable voice mails, enhanced 911, call conferencing, call blocking, call forwarding, caller id, and many others. All these features are offered by many major providers that are using VoIP technology including Spectrum voice, a service that offers more than 14 advanced calling features including the ones mentioned above.
Summing Up
The crux of all this conversation and the arguments made above is simple. VoIP is a technology that has significant improvements over its counterpart, the traditional landline. It is better in terms of both cost and portability, which are the two basic features a user expects from wireless calling. Although, we in no way mean that it is the best technology out there but this is also a fact that the future belongs to VoIP, and through continuous improvements, it’s getting there slowly but surely.
