VOIP – The Nuts and Bolts

Essay by labobcatA, December 2007

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VOIP - The Nuts and Bolts

January 22, 2007

VOIP - The Nuts and Volts

Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) is a relatively new technology in the telecommunications industry. VOIP is redesigning the industry in different ways with newer technology in a more cost-effective way. We started the telephone network where a telephone company housed switch board operators in a room with a large board that included pegs with wires attached. The operators would receive a call on a main line from the caller, get instruction on whom the call was to be connected with, and the operator would move the correct peg to the connection socket of the receiving caller. This experience is fun to witness in the old movies. Fast forward to today we have a telephone network that automatically switches calls, based on the number that is dialed.

VOIP has taken us even further in the communication arena. In this paper we will uncover the evolution of VOIP and the impact on telecommunications by describing the technology involved, describing future trends, giving examples of companies currently involved, describing regulatory issues surrounding VOIP, and describing the global implication of this technology.

What is VOIP

VOIP, also known as Voice Over Internet Protocol, is the routing of a voice signal over a broadband connection. It comes in several other names including IP Telephony, Internet Telephony, and several others but they all refer to the same technology. Essentially VOIP takes a voice, compresses it digitally and broadcasts it in packets over the internet to a recipient either on the internet or in some cases on a normal PSTN line. VOIP is helping to revolutionize the telecommunication industry by allowing users to call anyone in the world...