Digital Phone: Voice over Broadband/Voice over IP

In the hopes that this article helps understand the Telephone industry, and the technologies available today, the below will describe what is Voice over Broadband (VoBB), or Voice over IP (VoIP), its uses, applications, reliability, security and quality.

What is it? Voice over Broadband is a service offered today by Vonage, CallVantage (ATT) and others where the use of your broadband connection to the internet is leveraged to make phone calls. Yes, leveraged. It shares the internet connection with your PC, Router and switches you may have in the house. Your PC can be cruising the internet, and you may be on a phone call at the same time - your voice will turn into data packets, and be sent over the internet as a stream of data all the way to the other end. The other end will be sending you packets in a stream also, and your equipment will transform it into regular audio. This is the new digital age of telephony.

Applications vary greatly in this case. Unlike the old telephone, your phone number can go with you all over the world. This mobility does come with a price of local emergency services - if you end up in Hong Kong with your USA phone number, 911 services will not know you are abroad. Your PC or PDA can be a phone also - a softphone (software telephone) will use your PC's audio card and with a headset, you can make/receive calls globally - great for travel. PC to PC calling is free in most cases, which is why VoBB services have unlimited in-network calling. International calling is not unlimited in all cases - a rate plan is provided by each service. However, the costs are greatly reduced compared to your old analog telephone.

Reliability is very relative to your environment. Just like a cell phone, you change environments all the time - in this case, it is your IP environment that matters. Items that can affect you are routers, ISP's, and network load. A conversation can be done over dial-up connections, but because it is a stream of data, it requires un-interrupted 32Kbps of connectivity in most cases. An interruption in internet connection will kill a call. With data and web-surfing, some level of interruption was acceptable; with VoBB/VoIP, there is no room for it.

Routers also can block you at times, either the IT manager of your office is restricting "other than normal" activity, or the firewall algorithms are too complex for the signal to get through. For the most part, it works in most internet environments such as Schlotsky's (free wireless connection), Starbucks (T-Mobile Host Spot subscription service), and of course your home. Having the right technology to adapt to these environments is important, and service providers strive to acquire it and deliver it in a simple package to customers.

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