subject: Voip Adsl Phone Can Improve Price Of Phone Calls [print this page] VoIP, short for Voice over Internet Protocol, was developed in 1982 to allow the Internet to be used for carrying voice calls. The goal was to reduce the cost of long distance phone service. The idea worked. Today, technologies like VoIP and ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) high speed connections have provided a new era of communication service providers great capability for providing inexpensive and innovative phone services. Of special interest is the VoIP ADSL phone.
VoIP worked back in the 80s and 90s, but since most of us were using modem connections that, at best, gave us a 57 Kilobits per second transmission speed (and monopolized our phone lines while they were at it), VoIP got a bad reputation as being too low quality.
The high data speeds and higher bandwidth available with today's ADSL technology have significantly reduced these lag and quality problems and made the VoIP calling experience as good as using standard telephone lines.
It takes a lot of work to send voice across the Internet. A voice signal must be converted to a digital signal, then compressed so it does not take up too much space on the line, and then decompressed at its destination so it sounds like a voice again. It is no wonder that early VoIP users were frustrated. But with ADSL, those days are behind us; ADSL has the bandwidth and speed to seamlessly carry voice signals across land lines and the Internet.
A lot of work has been done to fine tune the experience of calls and video over VoIP. The communication industry works together and uses standards like SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) to control data exchanges and other standards to improve sound quality.
Service providers have devised various high-speed data plans that users can choose from depending upon their needs. Packages with names like Basic offer speeds starting at 128 Kilobits per second and are typically marketed to home users. Various packages and speeds are offered, going as high as 3000 Kilobits per second for DSL lines. ADSL offers speeds up to 8Mbps (8000 Kilobits per second).
New and faster technologies mean new and faster products and services. Communications service providers offer a wide range of products. There are phones that take advantage of ADSLs ability to share the telephone line so that a device can be used as both VoIP and land line phone, a good combination that insures a line is always available for phone calls. There are many offerings and configuration of ADSL modems that have enhanced security and various options for connecting phones. Wireless phones and dedicated VoIP ADSL phones are also available. The promise is quality phone service at a lower price than traditional telephone service providers, and the service providers are delivering.
