When a call is placed over the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) a dedicated circuit is opened between you and the recipient. This circuit remains open until such time as you end the call. Your voice is digitized and broken into tiny packets of data.
These data packets travel over the circuit to their destination and are reassembled into a voice. This process often results in the loss of some important data and the voice quality may deteriorate.
Due to these anomalies, the quality of your call will depend on your Internet connection speed as well as that of the recipient and the amount of Internet traffic at the time of your call.
Latency occurs when the data packets are delayed over your connection.
What this means is that there is a lag between your speech and when the person you are calling actually hears your voice. You may find this annoying until you get used to the idea.
Voice distortion occurs when data packets are lost during transmission. Your telephony software program will immediately try to compensate by examining the adjacent packets. If the software has to adjust for several lost packets, your voice may become considerably distorted.
Considering the amount of money you can save if you use an Internet telephone, you may be perfectly happy to live with the imperfect quality of your calls. They can be really useful for international calls to friends and family but may be less than ideal for business purposes.
What Software Is Required to Use an Internet Telephone?
If you think you may want to experience Internet telephony for yourself, you need to pick one of the available software programs. Some good choices are:
Dialpad
Dialpad allows you to make unlimited free Internet telephone calls within the United States. There is no special software to download. All you need to do is register with the service and then make computer-to-telephone calls directly from the Dialpad website.
Net2Phone
Net2Phone charges 2 cents per minute for calls within the United States and a range of rates for international calls. Simply download the software and use your on-screen dialpad to make an Internet telephone call.
NetMeeting
A Microsoft product that allows you to make worldwide computer-to-computer calls (in some cases, computer-to-telephone calls too). Netmeeting comes bundled with Windows 98 and later releases. If you don’t have it on your computer, you can download it from the Microsoft website. NetMeeting features several added features for online collaboration.
It really is as easy as 1-2-3 and if you don’t mind an occasional poor quality call (it really only matters that you can hear each other after, all) then use an internet telephone instead of your conventional one to keep in touch with friends and family. Many people enjoy the cost saving benefits of internet telephony, so if last month’s phone bill is a little high use an internet telephone instead and make technology a money saver too! Happy chatting!
