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VoIP Explained

VoIP short for voice over IP is an IP telephony term for a technology that uses facilities to manage the everyday delivery of phone calls or voice information over your Internet connection.

What actually happens is your VoIP phone is sending voice information in digital form in discrete packets rather than by using the traditional circuit-committed protocols of the public switched telephone network (PSTN).

This works to your advantage as HULL VoIP and Internet telephony avoid the tolls charged by ordinary telephone service and saves money (passed on to you the end user).

What you need

There are three main elements to the service:

  1. A VoIP phone or a VoIP enabled phone (we can supply you with them) This can be an all-in-one handset (wireless or wired), or a normal handset plugged into an adaptor, or a softphone: a program that uses a microphone and headphones on your computer to emulate a real handset x-lite from Counter path is one method .
  2. A Broadband internet connection. A leased line or ADSL/cable broadband is ideal; dial-up (ISDN or ordinary telephone line) or a satellite internet connection will likely cause a reduction in sound quality. A standard 256Kb upstream ADSL connection can accommodate 2-3 simultaneous calls; if you expect to need more capacity frequently, you may wish to upgrade to a higher-bandwidth package.
  3. A VoIP provider package from HULL VoIP. This gives you a VoIP-enabled external number: which is what other people dial to call you and is just like a traditional land line to anyone else as you can’t tell the difference.

Finally, you can have inbound numbers with different area codes (or even international numbers), so you can appear in several phone books and have a single office. This allows people to make cheap calls to you and choose a local business.