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Christian InTech Articles - VOIP
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Introduction to VoIP
What is VoIP? First things first, VoIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol. At a base level that means phone calls over your broadband connection. You really do need a high-speed connection to take advantage of VoIP to get phone calls...
VoIP Communication: Technology Helps Your Business
Communication has come a long way from the time of smoke
signals. What was new yesterday is considered required today.
Technology advances are fast and furious and to keep ahead in
the business world you must advance along with it, or...
VOIP Technology - Coming To A Phone Near You
VOIP Technology Coming to A Phone Near You
In the last couple of years, Voice Over Internet Technology
(VOIP) has spread like wildfire. VOIP is a great technology that
allows a person with a broad band connection to call a person
any where...
VOIP Internet Phone and Internet Telephony FAQ
How VoIP / Internet Phone Works VoIP converts the voice signal from your telephone into a digital signal that travels over the Internet. If you are calling a regular phone number, the signal is then converted back at the other end. Internet Voice...
Wireless VoIP - Description
Wireless VoIP is a technology that converts voice information into digital data packets, and transmits them wirelessly over a mobile network. Several VoIP telephony companies have recently made deals with wireless carriers that will allow them to...
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The Skype Approach to VoIP - A review of Skype
With internet usage reaching almost every country, and economic
class, and with its permeation throughout the western world,
applications designed to harness its potential in ever more
practical ways are constantly arising. One such application is
Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP), which continues to
challenge its own limitations. There are a few leading players
who are jostling for supremacy, including Yahoo! Messenger, MSN
Messenger, Skype, and Vonage.
Recently, there have been many converts to Skype, including
this reviewer. There are several factors that have influenced my
own personal move, but my primary motivations were innovation,
quality, and marketability. VoIP has always been an application
that is easily marketable, and Skype has added innovative
features that are quality-rich:
* SkypeOut, where you can use your computer to call ordinary
phone numbers all over the world. The global SkypeOut rate is
currently 1.7 Euro Cent (about 2 US cents or 1.1 pence) per
minute to more than 20 countries.
* SkypeIn, which is a virtual phone number your friends can
call. This is in beta testing at the time of writing this
review, but the 12-month subscription is available for € 30 and
3 months for € 10.
* Skype Voicemail, which lets you redirect calls to your
voicemail, is available at € 5 for 3 months or € 15 for the
year.
However, the most widespread application of Skype is PC-to-PC
calls. Any user can make free calls over the Internet to anyone
else who also has Skype. It is a simple wizard-based process to
download and use the application, and works via your broadband
connection with operating systems based on Microsoft Windows,
Mac, Linux, and Pocket PCs. All you need is a PC microphone and
speakers or a basic USB headset, and what you get is a
real-time, telephone-quality voice conversation with any PC
end-user in the world. I found the downloading to be extremely
simple and straightforward and imagine that anyone, no matter
your computer fluency will find it easy as well.
In addition to its ease of setup, the features of Skype are
really impressive. There is a facility to search the Skype
database, so that you are able to build a list of contacts. We
have used
Skype for Windows 1.4 for a PC-to-PC conversation
between Los Angeles and Mumbai (India), and there was no
recorded break in the half-hour call. The clarity was definitely
on par with a normal telephone, perhaps even better, with no
noticeable time lag. On subsequent calls between these
destinations and other US cities including Chicago, the quality
continues to amaze us, and the fact that Skype works in most
environments, irrespective of firewalls or NAT, widens its
reach.
So, what's the downside? A comparative analysis will help
clarify the situation. For a start, Skype does not offer as many
calling features as other service providers like Vonage. Then,
there have been question marks about the technical/customer
support offered by Skype. Another point where Skype loses out is
the quality of the SkypeOut package, where the calls made to
landlines are of inconsistent quality. One hopes that Skype can
add video chat to its repertoire in the near future, which will
place Skype on an equal standing with other free VoIP providers
like Yahoo! Messenger and MSN Messenger, which already have
video capabilities. Skype is undoubtedly ahead of both MSN and
Yahoo in terms of voice quality and the real-time conversation
experience. On the other side of the spectrum, Vonage offers
feature-rich services and better customer service, although all
this comes at a price.
My Overall Assessment: Vonage is a better option than Skype for
traditional telephone users because Skype is totally
computer-dependent and caters to consumers who are "living out
of their computers."
The future has a lot to offer, and undoubtedly Skype will move
forward in its evolutionary process, and hopefully improve
SkypeOut and emerge successfully out of beta testing for
SkypeIn. However, for the moment, Skype is arguably the best
option for free PC-to-PC calls. Skype says that the "current
focus is to make the best voice-application on the
planet"--judging from user feedback around the world, Skype has
already gone a long distance towards that objective.
About the author:
Hamesh Brown enjoys writing about VoIP. For more information,
see this Skype review.
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