Technology executives are betting that consumers will soon change how they make phone calls reducing the need for a phone line from a traditional provider. VoIP essentially turns telephone calls into just another piece of software running over an IP network, and due to this simplicity the future for VoIP seems promising.
Ever since Skype introduced software for voice calls on computers the industry has been buzzing. Google has entered the internet telephony market with an instant chat and voice app and is testing a Wi-Fi consumer service that has the potential to deliver data to wireless devices.
The technology companies are already starting to sell double purpose products such as cameras which appear standard but when a person slides the back of the device down, it reveals a full keyboard. Memory sticks that store from 64 megabytes to 1 gigabyte preloaded with a softphone are also now available. They come with a microphone and earphones.
Companies such as Google, Yahoo, and EarthLink have already played around with such technology. Last winter Yahoo added improved Voice over IP calling to its Yahoo Messenger. Google has also released Google Talk. AOL has told the world it would be providing a VoIP service called TotalTalk. AOL’s TotalTalk will essentially let people replace their traditional landlines. It has advanced communication features, such as unified voice, e-mail and instant messaging, and call-management.
Its probably accurate to say the phone companies will face a challenge with these momentous changes coming to the fore with VoIP technology.
