Internet Phone
The greatest advantage of an Internet Phone is the extensive savings in cost possible through this medium. Perhaps what comes as a very close second advantage, no additional cost is incurred to adopt this service. Commercial establishments possessing an Internet connection can easily adopt this medium. The discovery of the Internet telephony has revolutionized the telecom sector, and has given birth to a number of new businesses.
Perhaps the largest manifestation of this service is the location independence provided by it. An Internet connection is all that is required to gain access to the VoIP service provider. Departments such as customer service, query handling and complaint booking, as well as telephonic order booking and processing centers can be shifted to any part of the globe at a cheaper cost. This essentially means that companies using Internet Phone facilities can shift these jobs to labor surplus countries where the operation costs of maintaining these departments are considerably lower.
The other advantage is that the system allows integration with other services such as teleconferencing, simultaneous data, messaging and other file transmission, audio/video conferencing and managing access and address books.
While some users complain of congestion, jitters and fixed delays hampering smooth operations, these can be rectified or minimized by several protocols designed for the purpose.
Some experts have claimed that as long as telephonic communication is not totally dependent on the Internet, Internet Phone outages will not result in total communication failure. However, in the near future, if Internet telephony becomes as prevalent as is being expected, then it will not be entirely impossible for communities, corporate and other large entities from being entirely cut off from communication due to such outages. However, it is also expected that with more research being conducted across this rapidly penetrating medium, it is not long before a solution to this potential crisis is discovered and incorporated into the system.
Another common fear of VoIP users is that the system has low level of security. While on one hand it is true that being connected to the Internet leaves it susceptible to hackers' mercy, it is also true on the other hand that the data on an Internet Phone is recorded, stored and transmitted in digital format. As is common knowledge, digital information is the easiest to protect through very secure encryption codes. The first step (digitization) being a part and parcel of IP telephony, it is only a step away from encryption protection. In fact, secure and classified military information is regularly transmitted through VoSIP, SVoIP and SVoSIP, which involve transmission through classified network, and/or Type 1 encryption. It will not be far before these systems are developed or bought for use by corporate houses to transfer/conduct secure communication interactions.