how voice over internet protocol voip works
voip works by converting voice audio into packets of data that then travel through the internet like any other type of data such as text or pictures these packets of sound data travel almost instantly through public and private internet networks to route from the origination to the destination any landline or mobile phone that is connected to the internet can place and receive voip calls voip calls can also be conducted on computers through the computer microphone and speakers or headsets because voip calls travel through the internet instead of through analog telephone lines they are subject to the same lags and delays as other data traveling the internet when bandwidth is compromised or overwhelmed advantages and disadvantages of voice over internet protocol voip voip technology reduces the cost of voice communication to almost nothing for personal and commercial use many internet providers throw in voip telephone service for free as an incentive to buy broadband or higher speed internet connection and internet cable television channels since it costs the internet provider a little extra to provide this service and it costs the customer nothing extra for this service it is a win win for everyone involved in the transaction voip service has also enabled video calls conference calls and webinars for commercial and personal use at prices that are affordable or free previously video conferencing and web conferencing were expensive and only available to companies large enough to justify the expense but voip allows companies of all sizes including solo practitioners and freelancers to afford it the main con of voip services is that they can lag or clump because the sound goes in packets it is slightly delayed under normal circumstances untrained listeners won t be able to tell the difference between voip and analog calls but when there is high bandwidth usage on the internet the packets may cluster or be delayed which can cause a jerky clumped sound on voip calls some voip services can t work during power outages if the user or provider does not have backup power some 9 1 1 services do not have the ability to recognize locations of voip calls voip servicesthe first voip service was launched in 1995 by a company called vocaltech the company launched the first internet based phone with the appropriate name internetphone this did not come with any video capabilites and required both users to be logged on to the same software in order to talk early voip services suffered from a poor user experience with frequent distortions and dropped calls however the service steadily improved until the launch of skype in 2003 made voip attractive and practical for average users this allowed phone calls that were completely free of charge in addition to video calls and calls to landlines with much improved sound quality 2the covid 19 pandemic proved another boon for the voip industry as millions of office workers and administrators now began working remotely voip and related services such as zoom became even more critical for office administration as teleconferencing became the new norm for the average workplace 