In my previous articles I have said that your telephone system is the front door to you business. You touch every one of your customers through your phone. You can read more in How To Choose A Phone System for a solid foundation in the basics of telephone systems. But here I would like to address in a deeper way how Voice over IP is beginning to blur the lines in traditional telecommunications. Because this is a broad subject, I will cover it in several parts.
The two major ways that we communicate today are TDM and Voice over IP (VoIP). I won't get extremely technical other than to define the two types of systems in a general way. TDM is the traditional digital (sometimes analog) communication we have always had. In the past, it has utilized cables separate from the computer network which run out to each phone, device, or end point. VoIP stands for voice over IP and utilizes the Internet Protocol in a computer network to transmit the voice as data across your computer network and the public internet.
So far, you might have heard all that I have said previously before. You've heard hype and whisperings for years now and you are even seeing how VoIP is slowly creeping in and changing things. For instance, you might have had a chance to see or even use Skype, which is a free internet video chat and instant message application which uses VoIP. With Skype, you can put money in an account and even use your computer to make local and long distance calls. Other people can sign up for Skype and you can video chat and instant message with them for free anywhere in the world! Although Skype was one of the pioneers in being one of the first to come up with a useful way to use the internet for voice, it still hasn't found it's way into the commercial and business side in a strong way and this is what we have all been waiting for.
Let me tell you that Voice over IP is here! Several things have happened that have been key to help mature VoIP into a technology ready for us to use. First, the infrastructure needed to be developed and strengthened in a big way. That has happened. Early on, high speed internet was hard to get. You had to be in the right area to be eligible and then there might be only certain speeds you could qualify for. However, these days high speed internet has become fairly ubiquitous and easy to get. Also part of that strengthening and developing was the need for VoIP to become accepted as a viable way to transport voice communications. At first it was sort of a novelty, a $5.99 floppy you could buy, load on your computer and talk through your sound card. But this quickly grew into the Skypes of the world and now all telecommunications carriers run their national network backbones using VoIP.
The second key thing that has happened to mature VoIP has been the decision to use a certain standard. We needed a way to all speak the same language in our communications and that VoIP standard is called SIP. SIP stands for Session Initiated Protocol and really means nothing to the end-user other than that SIP gives us a standard way to communicate. If your system speaks SIP and my system speaks SIP then we know we can communicate. Now, as with all languages SIP is constantly being improved, but the important thing is that we can understand each other.
Finally, the last ingredient has been industry and consumer acceptance, which has happened in a big way. With any new technology there is always a disconnect that must be overcome, which is how does this affect me or help me do things better? In its infancy, VoIP struggled with this because the infrastructure we needed to use it didn't exist yet. And when it finally did, in the beginning it didn't work well because the infrastructure was weak and immature. But as with all solid and strong technologies, VoIP has emerged stronger than ever because of its amazing capabilities and potential and it is now on track to over take traditional communications system very quickly.
Well, I hope I have set the tone for VoIP. It's here and you need to know about it and what it can do. Stay tuned for part two where I will talk more about the powerful ways to apply voice over IP to your business and how it can help you do what you do - better!