PSTN phone systems have been around for a long time
. So much so that as we increase the use of technology we just let it slip from our minds that we could be using it to communicate in a better way. In many respects we've gotten used to substandard service from our phones. For example, how many times have you ever had to put a "speed dial" for an email address? Never. Your email system just remembers anyone you've mailed in the past and when you type in the first few characters it automatically suggests the correct one.
Phone numbers themselves are an anachronism. They're impossible to remember with any degree of accuracy, and they're tied down to physical locations. When was the last time you had to change your email ID because you were moving? Or had to use a different ID to check your email on your mobile phone or from a different computer? The next stage in telephone systems is VoIP which is based on the Internet and adopts many of its best features.
Since VoIP uses the Internet to transfer your voice around the globe instead of the regular telephone service, you can have many benefits which you would normally be unable to have with normal PSTN systems. For example, you can have the same number for many devices. Your clients would just need to dial one number in order to have all your phones in various locations ring at the same time.
In addition, you don't have to pay the heavy telephone carrier fees for a large part of the phone call since VoIP only taps into the PSTN line when it's approaching its destination. This means that we have a drastic reduction in the call rate. It makes itself especially noticeable when we make International calls.
VoIP also supports advanced features such as conferencing, ACD queues and extension dialing right out of the box. Configuration is easy with a computer and a regular GUI system and if you're using a hosted phone service you need not even worry about the implementation.
The real future of VoIP is when we dial someone's ID instead of their telephone number. As of now we still require calls to travel over PSTN lines even when the number we're dialing is VoIP based from another provider. When that happens we would truly have done away with the albatross of legacy phone systems and moved into the future.