What is VOIP? Voice Over Internet Protocol. This can be a very confusing topic since it's an over used and little understood term. VOIP is not free phone calls! Or is it? VOIP solutions can come in a lot of different flavors. For instance, you can have VOIP phones on you're desks but that doesn't mean that you use VOIP to make or receive calls. You may have analog lines (like you would have at your house) or other voice circuits connected to the (Warning! Annoying Acronym!) PSTN that allows you to make and receive calls. PSTN stands for Public Switched Telephone Network. It's the system of physical wires and equipment that allows you to pick up a phone and have it connect to another phone. It's a very reliable system, but expensive to maintain so more expensive than pure VOIP solutions.

True VOIP uses the internet to make and receive calls. If you've used Skype or Vonage you've used VOIP. More elaborate systems for businesses allow you to use you're data network to make calls to and from different locations, this is also true VOIP. In a business environment you will need a way to connect to that PSTN we mentioned earlier with a little more sophistication than Skype. That's because you're customers are connected to the PSTN. For a business you typically need a way to make and receive more than one call at a time. This is called a hunt group. And that's for the next entry, Telecom Basics. Click here if you have questions!