The Change Mariner: Reaching Out With VoIP

April 06, 2004

Reaching Out With VoIP

When was the last time you ooohhed and aaahed at your telephone? Probably never, right? Because let's face it, the traditional home phone may be amazingly reliable, but its coolness factor is almost zero. This might be the year that changes.
Internet phone service -- where you make calls through your broadband Internet connection using a regular telephone -- is picking up steam. And for the first time since mobile phones hit the market, the technology could make people seriously rethink Alexander Graham Bell's 127-year-old invention.

Want calls to your home phone to find you wherever you are? Done.

Want to automatically send all your calls straight to voice mail while you watch the Sopranos? Done.

Want to take your home phone and number wherever you travel, or send a voice mail message to a friend via e-mail? How about programming your own hold music? Done, done and done.

Internet phone service -- also known as VoIP for Voice over Internet Protocol (pronounced ``voyp'') -- has been widely available to consumers for more than a year through small companies such as VoicePulse, Vonage and Packet8. So far, Americans have been slow to sign on.

Introduction to Ip Telephony: Why and How Companies Are Upgrading Private Telephone Systems to Use Voip
Althos

Amazon Price: $12.99

IP Telephony Demystified
McGraw-Hill Professional

Amazon Price: $32.97

Introduction to SIP IP Telephony Systems : Technology Basics, Services, Economics, and Installation
Althos Publishing

Amazon Price: $12.99

Introduction to SS7 and IP : Call Signaling using SIGTRAN, SCTP, MGCP, SIP, and H.323
ALTHOS Publishing

Amazon Price: $7.99

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