Since the invention of the telephone, calls have used the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) to reach their destination. This essentially involved ‘renting’ a line between two points for the duration of the call – hence long-distance and international calls being more expensive.

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Scroll forward a hundred years or so and the switch-off of the PSTN system is on the horizon as a new technology is taking over. That technology is IP (Internet Protocol), allowing voice calls to be made using the web. This is also known as Voice over Internet Protocol or VoIP.

How Does It Work?

With an IP phone system, instead of the call going direct to its destination, it gets split up into packets of data that are sent over the internet. Because each of these can take a different route, the system can overcome congestion. It can also find the most efficient route … Read the rest >>>