The Internet Telephone (or VOIP phone) is the wave of the future!
Using the telephone has become more and more affordable with the deregulation of the telephone industry coming into play – but if you simply can’t put that receiver down it can still work out to be pretty expensive by the end of the month. However you can save a substantial amount of money if you use an Internet telephone. If you use an Internet telephone you can avoid long distance charges and call virtually anywhere in the world at local call rates!
An Internet telephone is a great solution for people who have flat-rate access because your calls are practically free. Read on to learn how to take advantage of Internet telephony services.
How to Use an Internet Telephone
To make an Internet telephone call you will make use of digital dialing. You place a voice call from your computer to a telephone or to the recipient’s personal computer.
If you call from pc to pc both you and the person you are calling need to have compatible telephony software installed and you will need to be online at the same time. There are no universal standards at the moment so you need to know what software the intended recipient of your call has installed on their computer.
If you choose to call from computer-to-telephone only you need have the appropriate software installed. Telephony software can easily be downloaded from the Internet and, wait for it, it’s free!
Whichever method you choose, you will need to obtain some hardware:
* A sound card (you probably have one installed already)
* A microphone
* Speakers or a headset
Calling From Computer-to-Computer
If you plan to place a call from computer-to-computer you need to plan in advance. Here’s how it works:
* Both parties need to be online
* Download and configure your software
* Enter the number of the computer you are calling, click on a dial button and wait for the call to be answered.
*Calling from computer-to-phone is a similar process but you will be calling a regular telephone number.
If all this is sounding way too easy read on to understand how an Internet Telephone works.
How Internet Telephony Works
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.