People who are accustomed to paying high phone bills for either their cell phone or landline, especially when making long distance and international calls, are surely among the primary group interested in new technologies for voice communication like VoIP, which stands for Voice Over Internet Protocol. VoIP allows users to call others over the internet at a much more affordable cost than traditional phone services. Computer to computer calls using VoIP services are completely free of charge. The only requirement is that you have a computer with a high enough internet connection speed, and software that will enable the VoIP connection.

In past years, it was cumbersome and expensive to keep in contact with friends in family in distant locations, especially those who lived in other countries. Today with VoIP technology, you can video call another computer around the world free, and with good quality. You can keep in touch with family and friends affordably, so very different from times of the past when phone bills could become very expensive and burdensome quickly.

VoIP technology replaces the need for analog or digital phone lines and signals. It uses internet connectivity instead. You pay for the time you use VoIP systems, not a per-call charge plus time charges, and other fees and charges on traditional analog or digital phone lines. Users say that the quality is similar to that of traditional digital phone calls. One reason why VoIP technology is less expensive is that you do not have to complete a circuit in order to make a call. Packet switching technology has replaced the circuit technology used by digital phone lines and service. Experts estimate that if internet VoIP calling continues to grow at the present rate, in ten years, traditional fiber optic-based digital phone service will no longer be used anywhere in the world. Many new providers exist to offer VoIP technology to individual customers and business customers.

VoIP technology can be used for business customers through SIP trunking. SIP trunking is a technology that enables a business that has an installed, wired IP-PBX system to use the system to continue to communicate within their business. Internet Telephony Service Providers or ITSPs provide SIP trunking to connect a business traditional phone network with the outside world and other businesses and individuals over the internet. Instead of using a traditional, electronic, wired PBX telephone sistem, the IP-PBX is based on your computer, uses existing phones, existing within-business internet networks or LANS, and links through a SIP trunk to the internet, thus enabling your business to use mobile, landline phones, computers, tablets and any other internet capable devices.

A company or business has the choice of continuing to use their traditional digital or analog PBX phone system, or using an IP-based PBX system that is operated via computer. Once your company or business has called out to the internet, the Internet Telephone Service Provider connects you to the public switched telephone network. The public switched telephone network connects you to other mobile and fixed phones. You also have a choice of a firewall providing support for SIP trunking, or an additional barrier device that connects to the firewall, which will route and switch the SIP trunking traffic securely and safely.