Internet Telephony

This is the first article in a series of articles discussing use of Internet Technology in making telephone calls.I will begin discussing what Internet Telephony is with an aim of explaining how you can make use of this technology to setup your own telephony network - be it for a company , organization , school , college , private group etc.

VoIP - stands for Voice Over Internet telephony.This is use of existing data networks originally designed to carry data from one point to another to carry voice.

Traditionally companies like AT&T , BT have networks that use satelite , copper wires , fiber optics to transmit voice conversations.The networks are owned and managed by the operators and until now - one was forced to use these networks to transmit voice.

Enter the Internet and the playing field changed over night.It is now very easy to use the Internet to send voice from point A to point B.Ever had of Skype ? Yes thats one example of use of Internet Telephony.WIth Skype you can call anyone who has a Skype account and start talking as long as they have a decent internet connection.

But the tools that we will discuss here will enable you to be a service provider and not just and end user.In other words you will be able to run your own Skype or Vonage !

The tools and software used are open source and FREE !