Way back in the 1990’s, a progressive group of individuals from research environments (both the corporate and educational sectors) had the vision of reinventing how the age- old telephone works. Specifically, they wanted to see if voice and video could successfully be transmitted over IP networks. To do this, they would have to break up the audio and video files into chunks and send them over to a particular destination through the IP network only to have it reassembled when it has reached its destination. And thus, VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) was born. This technology has had its fair share of evolution since its inception. Initially, VOIP technology involved complicated steps that resulted in low quality phone calls. Now however, the technology is much more user- friendly producing quality service at a much more affordable rate.
The current VOIP technology offers a wide range of services. Perhaps the most prominent of these is the free phone calls between computers through the use of software phones. Instead of phone numbers, users can call other people by their registered username. To call a phone number, users have to subscribe to a carrier. This option is the other service offered by VOIP providers. Under this option, a user can make use of a regular phone which can also be assigned its own phone number. Although almost exactly identical in terms of use, the VOIP advantage can be felt in its cheaper rates.