Mobile Voice over Internet (VoIP)
Mobile VoIP is an important feature as device manufacturers exploit more powerful processors and less costly memory to meet user needs for ever-more ‘power in their pocket’. Smartphones from mid-2006 are capable of sending and receiving email, browsing the web (albeit at low rates) and in some cases allowing a user to watch TV. Dual-Mode phones (WiFi or WiMax) will increase data rates (faster downloads) in 2008.
With mobile phones incorporating data features, Voice over IP (using Voice over WiFi or Voice over WiMax) becomes an available option.
Voice over Wi-Fi offers potentially free service but is only available within the coverage area of a Wi-Fi Access Point. High speed services from mobile operators using EVDO rev A or HSDPA may have better audio quality and capabilities for metropolitan-wide coverage including fast handoffs among mobile base stations, yet it will cost more than the typical Wi-Fi-based VoIP service. The emerging solution is Voice over WiMax (see: WiMax Standards for Mobile Communications) which has much larger range than Wi-Fi and allows Voice with high quality of service.
VoIP Mobile industry is estimated to grow to 12 Billion Dollars by 2010 in Europe.
One implementation of Fixed mobile convergence enables seamless roaming between WIFI and GSM or CDMA networks. Standards and alliances have been developed and technologies have been demonstrated as early as December 2005. This allows VoIP calls to seamlessly transfer to/from the cellular network, ideally without the user being aware of the handoff.
D2 Technologies’ newly enhanced vPort embedded software with Voice Call Continuity (VCC) and NewStep Networks’ award-winning mobility applications to deliver a completely integrated approach for accelerated FMC deployments in today’s most popular multi-mode mobile environments, including WiFi, WiMAX and GSM. — “VoIP Software Adds Fixed Mobile Convergence Capabilities for Dual-mode Mobile Phones”
What is VoIP and What Can it Do for Your Business?
VoIP and IP telephony are becoming increasingly popular with large corporations and consumers alike. For many people, Internet Protocol (IP) is more than just a way to transport data, it’s also a tool that simplifies and streamlines a wide range of business applications. Telephony is the most obvious example. VoIP—or voice over IP—is also the foundation for more advanced unified communications applications—including Web and video conferencing—that can transform the way you do business.
What is VoIP: Useful Terms
Understanding the terms is a first step toward learning the potential of this technology:
* VoIP refers to a way to carry phone calls over an IP data network, whether on the Internet or your own internal network. A primary attraction of VoIP is its ability to help reduce expenses because telephone calls travel over the data network rather than the phone company’s network.
* IP telephony encompasses the full suite of VoIP enabled services including the interconnection of phones for communications; related services such as billing and dialing plans; and basic features such as conferencing, transfer, forward, and hold. These services might previously have been provided by a PBX.
* IP communications includes business applications that enhance communications to enable features such as unified messaging, integrated contact centers, and rich-media conferencing with voice, data, and video.
* Unified communications takes IP communications a step further by using such technologies as Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) and presence along with mobility solutions to unify and simply all forms of communications, independent of location, time, or device. (Learn more about unified communications.)
What is VoIP: Service Quality
Public Internet phone calling uses the Internet for connecting phone calls, especially for consumers. But most businesses are using IP telephony across their own managed private networks because it allows them to better handle security and service quality. Using their own networks, companies have more control in ensuring that voice quality is as good as, if not better than, the services they would have previously experienced with their traditional phone system.