Internet Telephony: Coming in Clear

Internet has a wide range of applications spread over a diverse set of sectors providing huge range of opportunities and chances to strive in untraced profitable business segments. Innovations are continuously happening to make internet usage more dynamic and versatile. Establishing itself as a strong social networking tool through instant messaging and web blogging, Internet is now catching pace as a transmission for telephonic calls, across the whole globe, that has made the social as well as corporate commmunication more effecient and cost effective.

The internet telephony relies on a technology called Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) that reduces costs and increase calling flexibility by delivering voice communications in much the same way e-mail travels over the Internet or a corporate data network.

The result? Virgin expects to save $700,000 a year, mostly in long-distance phone bills, on a network that cost $330,000 in the first year and will ultimately carry a price tag of $1 million. Best of all, the new network also lets Virgin stream content—250,000 CDs, 11,000 DVDs and 7,000 games—to any kiosk in the store. Isn't that amazing?

Why the increasing interest in IP? Many are drawn to VoIP systems by their potential to slash long-distance phone bills. Still costs for equipment, network upgrades, and professional services can eclipse near-term savings. Executives will also need to spend more time planning and installing VoIP costs associated with planning, installation, and troubleshooting .

Before any furhter analysis, I found it logical to mention the three categories of internet telepony. Here is the knowledge for you:

1. PC-to-PC Calling: Internet Telephonic chat between two two prospective clients who are online at the same time, were the  client software converts transmitted speech into data packets and routes it over the Internet. The receiving client turns the data packets back into voice signals that are heard through the speakers or headphones on the receiving end.
2. PC-to-Phone Calling: Calls from internet to regular telephones, in the mechanism of which  the  PC phone user's PC acts as the originating gateway, which converts the voice transmission into data packets onto the Internet. At the end gateway provided by the software distributor, the data packets are converted to voice signals and routed to the PSTN. The PSTN then routes the call to the receiver's telephone, as it would with regular telephone calls.
3. Phone-to-Phone Calling: Users with Internet telephone connections place a call from their landline phone. The voice signals are digitized, compressed and converted to data packets. When the data packets arrive at the gateway, they are converted back into voice signals. Once converted, the voice signals are then transmitted through the local PSTN to the receiver.