Short for V oice o ver I nternet P rotocol , a category of hardware and software that enables people to use the Internet as the transmission medium for telephone calls by sending voice data in packets using IP rather than by traditional circuit transmissions of the PSTN. One advantage of VoIP is that the telephone calls over the Internet do not incur a surcharge beyond what the user is paying for Internet access, much in the same way that the user doesn't pay for sending individual e-mails over the Internet. There are many Internet telephony applications available. Some, like Cool Talk and Net Meeting, come bundled with popular Web browsers. Others are stand-alone products. VoIP also is referred to as Internet telephony , IP telephony, or Voice over the Internet (VOI) Voice over IP has been implemented in various ways using both proprietary and open protocols and standards. Examples of the network protocols used to implement VoIP include: H.323 Media Gateway Control P...
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