If you’ve already used the Internet, you’ll know that you can use your Internet connection to send and receive many different kinds of information - video, music, email and personal messages are just a few examples. VoIP is just another use for the Internet - this time for making phone calls.
From a user’s point of view VoIP is very similar to a conventional landline telephone system. You talk into a handset or microphone (or a headset if you prefer it) and so does the person at the other end. The only difference is in what happens in-between.
In a normal phone call over a landline, voice signals travel along a telephone wire, and through a system of telephone exchanges. With a VoIP phone call on the other hand, your voice is sent as digital information over the Internet. It doesn’t matter how you connect to the Internet - through your phone line (using ADSL), or via cable or a wireless network or satellite link - VoIP works in just the same way.
The promise of free international calls whenever you want them probably sounds a little too good to be true - there must be a catch, right? Well, yes and no. Provided you only wish to use VoIP to communicate with other VoIP users, everything is very straightforward. If however you want to be able to use VoIP to make and receive calls to and from people who don’t have VoIP, you’ll need to subscribe to a gateway service that provides a bridge between VoIP and the conventional phone networks.
