Voice over IP is short for Voice over Internet Protocol, and is better known as VoIP.
Voice over IP refers to the transmission of voice traffic over internet-based networks instead of the traditional PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) telephone networks. The Internet Protocol (IP) was originally designed for data networking and following its success, the protocol has been adapted to voice networking by packetizing the information and transmitting it as IP data packets. VoIP is now available on many smartphones, personal computers and on internet access devices such as tablets.
Voice over IP (VoIP) can facilitate tasks and deliver services that might be cumbersome or costly to implement when using traditional PSTN:
More than one phone call can be transmitted on the same broadband phone line. This way, voice over IP can facilitate the addition of telephone lines to businesses without the need for additional physical lines.
Features that are usually charged extra by telecommunication companies, such as call forwarding, caller ID or automatic redialing, are simple with voice over IP technology.
Unified Communications are secured with voice over IP technology, as it allows integration with other services available on the internet such as video conversation, messaging, etc.
These, and many other advantages of voice over IP, are making businesses adopt VoIP Phone Systems at a staggering pace.