VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is an Internet phone service that bypasses your normal local telephone company. Internet VoIP service rings and has a dial tone just like any other telephone, but calls are routed over your Internet connection. Although it has been around for a little while (mostly for business use), its growing popularity may help lower the cost of phone communication for consumers and eliminate plain old telephone service (POTS) entirely. Unlike traditional analog telephone signals, which travel through a PSTN (public switched telephone network), VoIP digitizes the speaker's voice and sends it through either cable or DSL broadband Internet connections. An adapter connects your regular telephone to your Internet connection. Cable modems are the preferred choice for VoIP service. Since DSL uses a phone line for operation, you'll still need to keep an active traditional phone service, and some reviews note that call quality with DSL is not as good as with cable

In addition to cost savings, VoIP provides tools that allow people to integrate their various messaging platforms, including voice, text, and video. Experts from the Wall Street Journal predict offerings, rather than just price, will drive growth. Consumer Reports concurs, detailing many of the current VoIP features that are not available with most traditional landline services, including voice mails e-mailed in real time, online call logs, and do-not-disturb times which users can set up when expecting an important call, sending other calls automatically to voice mail.

You can still use your PC(Personal Computer) normally while making VoIP phone calls, but the computer does not need to be turned on to make calls unless you are using a software VoIP program, such as Skype. However, your broadband connection needs to be on and active. If you are using the hardware services, additional phones throughout your house can have access to VoIP by running a wire from a phone jack to the adapter. PC World and other reviewers found that voice quality can sometimes suffer while simultaneously downloading large files, especially video files, on the computer.



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