Voice Over IP Is Growing By Leaps And Bounds by Marc Ilgen

Voice Over IP technology is ushering in a significant advance in telecommunications. This technology represents a new and much cheaper way for people to send and receive telephone calls. While the technology behind VOIP is new, people are switching to using it for one main reason - it saves them a bunch of money on their phone bills.

VOIP technology is built upon Internet technology. Internet computers operate by sending so-called packets of information over a variety of transmission media, including cables, wires, fiber optics, or even over the air using wireless technology. At the receiving end, the packets of information are joined together to recreate the original message. VOIP works by sending packets of information that represent voice data. Special VOIP modems handleTake care of the task of packing and unpacking these packets, so what people say and hear is the same identical telephone voice signal they are used to saying and hearing.

A nice feature of VOIP is that the voice quality tends to be an improvement over old fashioned telephone systems because of the use of these digital Internet packets. The line is often so clear that many often think the line is disconnected because the familiar buzz of static is not there.

So what is required to make VOIP work for you? The main requirement is a high speed Internet connection. Fortunately high speed Internet is available in most places in the USA, so almost everyone can get and benefit from VOIP. Regardless of whether the high speed Internet service is DSL or cable, VOIP service should work fine as long as the connection is fast enough. And with the growing presence of high speed Internet even in small towns, VOIP will soon be available to everyone.

So which organizations offer VOIP plans? The most common VOIP service providers are as follows:

- Vonage. Vonage is the largest and most well known of the Internet companies that provide VOIP service plans. Unfortunately, they are one of the more expensive options for getting VOIP service. An unlimited calling plan costs around 25 dollars per month. But many people use Vonage, primarily because of their agressive advertising over the past year or two.

-Sunrocket. Sunrocket is a more recent contestant in the VOIP world, but they are very reliable and offer very inexpensive plans. An unlimited calling plan at Sunrocket will cost less than 17 dollars per month. As a result, Sunrocket is growing significantly as a major player in the VOIP world.

-Phone Carriers. Several of the tradional phone service carriers also deliver VOIP plans. For Instance Verizon now provides their own version of VOIP service costing about 25 dollars per month. At this monthly cost, Verizon is a competitor with Vonage, although it still has a ways to go to be able to compete with Sunrocket on the basis of cost.

-Small Startup Companies. As a new technology, VOIP is attracting several small companies into the business. Sometimes these companies can offer terrific service at a low cost. However, the VOIP landscape is changing rapidly so it pays to shop around carefully when looking at small companies.

Regardless of which plan you choose for getting VOIP service, the bottom line is that you will save money. Your typical telephone service charges significantly more for basic phone service than VOIP companies charge for advanced service with all the extras like call waiting, three way calling, and so on. In other words, you get more for your money with VOIP, plain and simple.
About the Author

Marc Ilgen is a computer scientist and entrepreneur in telecommunications technology. His website http://www.best-voip-plan.com compares a number of VOIP service plans. For a customized version of this article and related articles, go to VOIP and Communication Articles.