VoIP is the Holy Grail of communications

VoIP is the Holy Grail of communications

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is fast emerging as the technology that will eventually overtake the traditional telephone service. Additionally, the amount of investment that is being poured into these emerging technologies is far more than what is being put in to improve the old telephone services.

But this is by no means the end of the road for the basic telephone services. These will form the backbone around which these new technologies will be built upon. Mobile telephony changed the very landscape of the way people communicated with each other.

The freedom provided by mobile telephones wooed consumers like nothing had done before. But the problem with mobile phones is the often quirky reception especially in certain pockets that are not covered by the service provider.

It is here that the advantage of VoIP can be clearly seen. To subscribe to a VOIP service, all you need is a telephony adaptor. Through this piece, electrical pulses are transmitted as data packets over the Internet, thus integrating the telephone line and the Internet telephone. You are now ready to start burning the wires.

The popularity of VoIP was enhanced many fold by the introduction of the Skype service. The company, which was acquired by eBay, boasts of over 60 million users. Another factor responsible for the wide popularity of the VoIP services is the "wireless" factor in the form of Wi-Max that is being heavily promoted by Intel. At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, many manufacturers have come out with a plethora of handsets that offer VoIP capabilities.

Skype has inked deals with as many as four companies to bring out such models. Analysts are already talking about this being the VoIP era. This belief is reinforced by the fact that VoIP services are cost-effective.