voip whats that all about

Hi Guys
i know from reading posts that some of you have your own businesses, our phone line rentals and call charges are going through the roof for landlines not mobiles.

Does anyone know what voip (voice over internet protocol) phone systems do and are they as good as what people say in saving money. we currently have 10 inbound lines and 20 extensions.

I know its a long shot but i thought i would try here first as the sales guys from communication companies is doing my head in.

Honest answers please i dont understand all the technical crap.

Kind regards
Lrac

My system uses this. My cable service provides the phone, Internet, and TV all from the same little cable. This requires me to have a cable modem for the Internet, a "box" for the phone and separate "boxes" for the TV.

I have had this for several years and have had absolutely no problem with the phone service or voice quality. I have been favorably impressed with the service and costs.

Obviously, this is based on my location but I would hope others would have a similar favorable impression with the technology.

I used to work for a cable company in NY after I retired and that was my baby. Fiber optics.......cable tv, cable modems, and phone. I used to set up the outside plant and was in charge of the engineering dept. The main issue would be the installation in your home or business. A lot of the companies hire contractors to do installations and get paid by the job so they want to install and get out and get to the next job; so it behoves you to ensure that all is working before he leaves. As a product they are very reliable. One major drawback is that if the cable system goes down for whatever reason; (blackout, car hits pole, etc,) so does your service, which fortunately doesn't happen that often and they do have people on call for such emergencies...

LRAC

http://www.vonage.co.uk/

I worked for a VoIP company in Barking, Essex, England. The technology has improved considerably, and yes it is almost as good as the PSTN (Public Switching Telephone Network).

Why is it cheaper?

When you call someone on a PSTN, all the equipment required to make that connection, and the cable pair/channel is exclusive to you and the person you are calling.

When the call is routed over a VoIP (the Internet backbone), the local, national or international Internet cables, can support upto 12 simultaneous conversations on the same pair of wires/channel.

If we assume a call from the UK to the USA cost £0.24 per minuet on the PSTN, the same call routed through a VoIP gateway (interface between PSTN & VoIP), could cost £0.02 p/m, due to 12 simultaneous conversations using the same wire/channel. 12 x £0.02 = £0.24.

Many PSTN, Cable and Cell phone operators, subscribe to VoIP networks, or have installed their own VoIP Internet Gateways to provide cheaper calls.

I have VOIP phone system, I got mine with my cable and highspeed internet, as a bundle package.

But you know whats funny,, You can set up a yahoo IM account and basically do the same thing for free as long as the person you want to talk to is on line and has yahoo IM and signed on.

Of course you need speakers and Microphone, and if you want to be real fancy you can integrate a web cam, this does take up bandwidth and slows down the conversation, but works exceptinally well with highspeed internet fiberoptics connections.

To have a phone conversation with someone and see who your talking to from any where in the world is awsome technology.