Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also called IP telephony, is a method and group of technologies for the delivery of voice communications and multimedia sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. The terms Internet telephony, broadband telephony, and broadband phone service specifically refer to the provisioning of communications services over the Internet, rather than via the public switched telephone network (PSTN), also known as plain old telephone service (POTS).
Plain old telephone service (POTS), or plain ordinary telephone system, is a retronym for voice-grade telephone service employing analog signal transmission over copper loops. POTS was the standard service offering from telephone companies from 1876 until 1988 in the United States when the Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) Basic Rate Interface (BRI) was introduced, followed by cellular telephone systems, and voice over IP (VoIP). POTS remains the basic form of residential and small business service connection to the telephone network in many parts of the world. The term reflects the technology that has been available since the introduction of the public telephone system in the late 19th century, in a form mostly unchanged despite the introduction of Touch-Tone dialing, electronic telephone exchanges and fiber-optic communication into the public switched telephone network (PSTN).
Vonage is an American publicly held business cloud communications provider. Headquartered in Holmdel Township, New Jersey, the company was founded in 2001 as a provider of residential telecommunications services based on voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).
Broadvoice is a privately owned company that provides Voice over IP (VoIP) cloud based telecommunications services to small, medium and enterprise size businesses in the United States. Broadvoice provides telephone services, UCaaS, SIP Trunking, telecommunications network and security, along with virtual call centers so business customers can use voice and video communications via a broadband Internet connection or cellular phone.
Digium, Inc. is a communications technology company based in Huntsville, Alabama, and since 2018, a subsidiary of Sangoma Technologies. In 1999, Digium's founder Mark Spencer created Asterisk, the open source software project that can be used to turn a personal computer into a communications server or Voice over IP (VoIP) phone system. Today, Digium's core business lines include Switchvox, the Asterisk-based VoIP business phone system, Digium IP phones, and Asterisk telephony software and hardware products. Digium continues to make Asterisk available to the global development community for free at Asterisk.org.
An Internet telephony service provider (ITSP) offers digital telecommunications services based on Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) that are provisioned via the Internet.
Jajah was a VoIP provider, founded by Austrians Roman Scharf and Daniel Mattes in 2005. The Jajah headquarters was located in Mountain View, CA, USA, and Luxembourg. Jajah maintained a development centre in Israel. On 23 December 2009, it was announced that Jajah had been bought by Telefónica through its subsidiary Telefónica Europe. In December 2013, Telefónica announced that Jajah would shut down at the end of January 2014.
VocalTec Communications Inc. is an Israeli telecom equipment provider. The company was founded in 1985 by Alon Cohen and Lior Haramaty, who patented the first Voice over IP audio transceiver. VocalTec has supplied major customers such as Deutsche Telekom, Telecom Italia, and many others.
Sipgate, stylised as sipgate, is a European VoIP and mobile telephony operator.
Origination in VOIP telephony refers to calls that originate in the PSTN public switched telephone network and are carried to their destination over the Internet.
Linksys WRTP54G is a Wi-Fi capable router with VoIP capability from Linksys. Launched in 2005, it is similar in function to the popular WRT54G, the device is capable of sharing Internet connections amongst several computers via 802.3 Ethernet and 802.11b/g wireless data links, but it also has two POTS ports for VoIP telephony.
Unified communications (UC) is a business and marketing concept describing the integration of enterprise communication services such as instant messaging (chat), presence information, voice, mobility features, audio, web & video conferencing, fixed-mobile convergence (FMC), desktop sharing, data sharing, call control and speech recognition with non-real-time communication services such as unified messaging. UC is not necessarily a single product, but a set of products that provides a consistent unified user interface and user experience across multiple devices and media types.
MagicJack is an Internet-based telephone service (VoIP) provider in the United States and Canada. It is a computer peripheral that, in combination with telephony service from the related YMAX Corporation, provides VoIP services. In 2011 the company introduced MagicJack Plus, which no longer requires a computer.
iConnectHere is the consumer division of Deltathree, which provides VoIP internet telephony service to consumers and businesses worldwide. The company's products are: Broadband (Internet) Phones, PC to Phone service, Mobile Dialers, Calling Cards and local phone numbers.
Cloud communications are Internet-based voice and data communications where telecommunications applications, switching and storage are hosted by a third-party outside of the organization using them, and they are accessed over the public Internet. Cloud services is a broad term, referring primarily to data-center-hosted services that are run and accessed over an Internet infrastructure. Until recently, these services have been data-centric, but with the evolution of VoIP, voice has become part of the cloud phenomenon. Cloud telephony refers specifically to voice services and more specifically the replacement of conventional business telephone equipment, such as a private branch exchange (PBX), with third-party VoIP service.
SunComm Technology is a Taiwan multinational computer technology and GSM Voice over IP gateway manufacturer. The main products in 2010 focused on GSM VoIP gateways & IP surveillance camera devices. Core members have been engaging in the communication & networks industry since 1977.
Phone Power is an American privately owned commercial voice over IP (VoIP) company, based in Winnetka, California that provides telephone service over the Internet via a broadband connection.
Nymgo is a software application that makes calls from computers to landlines and mobile phones over the Internet through Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). Nymgo charges users for each minute of a call from credits that users have purchased through the application.
Elon A. Ganor is an Israeli entrepreneur known for his role as one of the world's first VoIP pioneers. He served as chairman and CEO of VocalTec Ltd, the company behind the creation of "Internet Phone", the world's first commercial software product that enabled voice communication over the internet, known initially as "Internet Telephony" and later as VoIP.
VoIP is vulnerable to similar types of attacks that Web connection and emails are prone to. VoIP attractiveness, because of its low fixed cost and numerous features, come with some risks that are well known to the developers an are constantly being addressed. But these risks are usually not mentioned to the business which is the most common target.
(US$9.31 million) (2007) [1]