Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is a communication service using broadband technology to transmit calls, faxes and/or voice messages over the Internet rather than over the traditional public telephone network. The Internet is based on data transmission, known as packet switching, which is far faster and more efficient than the traditional method of making telephone calls through local telephone circuit switching networks.
The service may be used via computer, a special VoIP telephone or even a normal telephone together with a broadband connection. In can be compared to e-mail, except that VoIP transmits the spoken rather than the written word. To use this global service you need a broadband connection and a VoIP service provider.
VoIP has been slow to take off, largely because the service was unreliable and didn’t always work. But now (September 2005) there seems to be some activity. It’s reported that Internet auctioneer eBay intends acquiring Skype Technologies SA, a free computer to computer telephone service. And it won’t come cheap, so eBay will want to see some rapid expansion. Some smaller deals done in the VoIP sector by Microsoft and Yahoo are another indication that things are moving.
In 2005, Linux-based platform Asterisk demonstrated the potential of VoIP by creating a service called “Contact Loved Ones” to connect Hurricane Katrina evacuees with their families. Evacuees were able to call their home number and record a message which would be heard by anyone calling that number and callers could also leave their own message. To provide a similar service using traditional telephone technology would have been inconceivable.
One thing is not yet clear – will government regulations, such as the decision by the U.S Government’s Federal Communications Commission requiring all VoIP services to provide emergency call capability, complicate matters and cause a rise in costs?