Although the concept of placing calls over the Internet has been in practice several years, today's VoIP, short for voice over Internet protocol, is packed with new features allowing users to listen to voice mail over the web and to forward calls automatically from any broadband connection. Five years ago, the voice quality was inconsistent because the Internet connections were slow and the software was rudimentary. However, today's VoIP phone service is simple to access anywhere there is a broadband Internet connection. Companies such as Vonage, Packet8 and Skype Technologies all offer competitive packages to lure the consumer away from traditional telephone services.

According to John C. Dvorak of PC Magazine, cheap VoIP services will soon meet their end. In his article, "The Coming Death of Cheap VoIP," he describes how the major phone companies will take over VoIP, rename it "digital voice," and render cheap VoIP service providers obsolete. They will do this by addressing the new E911 service requirements and by making broadband services incompatible with discount VoIP services, such as Skype that offers free computer-to-computer phone calls. I agree with Dvorak in that the large telephone companies have the E911 advantage, but disagree that Skype and other bargain VoIP services will be going away any time soon

Although most corporations rely on WebEx, Microsoft Live Meeting, and Macromedia Breeze to satisfy their web- and audio-based conferencing needs, a few new smaller web conferencing companies are entering the arena at a much lower cost to individuals, small businesses, and non-profit organizations. While these web conferencing providers use traditional audio technology to power the web conferences, the new conferencing providers such as Voxwire use VoIP conference software that matches the reliability and sound quality of the larger web- and audio-based providers. In fact, a key feature of Voxwire's technology is its ability to send audio over the Internet at low bandwidths without compromising sound quality.

iVocalize, a web conferencing software developer, and TTC Global Talk, a web conferencing service provider, use VoIP conference software and superior service to offer affordable audio and web conferencing solutions to small and medium sized businesses. In the VoIP industry lingo, these businesses are known as SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises) and SOHOs (small office/home office companies). Since SOHOs and SMEs have slimmer profit margins than do enterprise businesses, finding an inexpensive web conferencing solution is a priority on their conferencing agendas.

VoIP is the newest advancement in audio communications technology, and has a variety of different applications that make it useful. VoIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol, and how VoIP works is actually quite revolutionary because it streamlines the process of sending analog audio signals by converting them to a much easier to send digital form for transmission.

What is VoIP? What is the intrinsic value of this technology? VoIP (voice over Internet protocol) describes the technology that enables consumers to make phone calls over the Internet instead of through a traditional landline or cell phone telecommunications network. Some of the benefits of VoIP technology include saving money on long distance phone calls, voice mail that can be received as e-mail messages, and the option of adding a toll-free number that will reach the user's main number.

In May 2005, the FCC imposed immediate E911 requirements for VoIP service providers, which gave implied legitimacy to this growing telephony field. In this new ruling, a VoIP service provider, such as Vonage, must support E911 services within a 120-day window. In order to comply with the new regulations, a Voice over IP provider must have their 911 calls placed with emergency services within the caller's proximity, rather than where that VoIP number might be located. Another change to the current 911 services would require providers to automatically file the customer's location in their system, while now this is only an optional feature.

Once companies convert to a VoIP service provider, security and data integrity become more of a priority than with traditional telephony. Callers' voices are now data and that packaged data needs to be secured. And so, a security solution needs to be found that ensures flexibility from VoIP service providers that eliminate most of the risk from external attacks.