Internet Telephony: a Means to Effective Calling

Internet telephony is a method of achieving high speed voice calls that are routed over the internet. Several hardware and software components are involved in the transfer of voice and data over computer networks. There are special softwares that can be used to enjoy free telephone calls to any destination in the world. The services associated with this technology are numerous.

It is the integration and combination of voice with data, services and applications that results in internet telephony. The technology is based on the principle that analog voice input is converted to digital data. This is then sent over available network channels that later gets converted to voice output when it reaches the receiver. ‘Telephone lines’ are basically traditional circuit switching network and ‘Internet’ is packet switching network. So, both these networks can be used together to facilitate services such as voice mail, fax, real-time human speech, pager and multi-media videoconferencing. With this technology, it is possible to make seamless use of phones, computers, TV cables, personal digital assistants, wireless and web technology.

The advantage of using internet telephony services is in the costs involved. The low costs involved add a feather to this technology. So, now it is possible to transfer voice messaging applications via the internet rather than the Public Switched Telephone Networks (PSTN). This has eased things for people. The basic step is conversion of analog voice signal to digital form and later compression of the signals to Internet protocol (IP) packets. This is then transferred over the internet and the process gets reversed at the opposite end. Thus, it becomes possible to transfer voice and images over the internet.

With this technology in hand, it is possible to save on long-distant bills. This is made possible as now one can make point to point calls with the aid of gateway servers that are attached to Local Area Networks (LAN). So, the only thing that one requires to do is to pick up the phone receiver and make a call to the desired destination or to the internet telephony service provider, for instance. Supposing a person in London wants to make a call to Geneva. He dials an extension number to the gateway server. This server is equipped with a telephone board and a software that is actually a compression–conversion software. The upcoming call is then digitised by the server after configuring the Private Branch Exchange (PBX). This gateway server then transmits the digitised packet to a wide area network (WAN). The WAN transfers the signals to the Geneva end of the gateway. The gateway at the Geneva end converts this digital signal to analog form. This signal is then delivered to the person called.

So, now with this technology, it is possible to avail VoIP services that prove to be excellent for business establishments. VoIP internet telephony can be used for personal purposes as well.