As a new era of Internet telephony emerges, the world prepares itself to witness yet another revolution in the telecommunications industry.

Modes of communication have gradually evolved over the years. First it was e-mail, then came instant messaging, and now it is the turn of Internet telephony or VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) that is making headlines in the global communication industry. Clearly, the technology has moved from an experimental stage to mainstream business. As more and more companies worldwide are embracing the new technology and developing road maps for implementing it in their businesses, it is evident that a new communication platform has emerged and is here to stay.

VoIP is the technical term that encompasses all voice communications, which are carried on through the internet. This includes pure PC-to-PC calling, the traditional phone-to-computer calling and vice versa, and also communicating between two conventional phones which are linked to the internet behind the scene. Put simply, VoIP is the convergence of voice, video, and data. In contrast to traditional phone calls, which require a dedicated line to connect callers at both ends, Internet telephony sends voice (or even video) as digital packets over the data network (usually the internet) alongside e-mails and other web traffic, enabling the individual packets to take the shortest possible route and finally reassemble at the other end.

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