Over the last few years, an amazing revolution has occurred in telecommunications. It seems like everyone these days has a cellphone, and cellular communication has certainly been a big part of the telecommunications revolution. But there is another technology that is enabling exciting new things in the world of communications. This technology is called Voice Over Internet Protocol, or VOIP for short. The basic idea behind VOIP is that it provides people with a way to make telephone calls over an internet connection. Of course there are lots of technical details as to how this is accomplished. But the bottom line is that it provides people with reliable and portable telephone service at a much lower cost than the plain old telephone system they are used to. And this is not some pie-in-the-sky research technology - this is a technology that is available today from several VOIP service providers. Because of the amazing advantages and cost savings that VOIP telephony provides, these companies are growing by leaps and bounds as many thousands of new customers are signing up. The signs are very clear that VOIP is the direction in which telephone services will be going over the next decade.

So here is why you should care about VOIP:

1. VOIP Saves You Money. VOIP telephone services are generally much cheaper than the Plain Old Fashioned Telephone (POTS) services you are used to. From about $9.95 for the most basic service (still far better than POTS) to $39.95 for residential; business plans usually run from $49.95-to-$99.95 and include a separate fax number.
2. VOIP Saves You Even More Money. In most cases, those extra phone services like Caller ID, Call Waiting, and 3-Way Conferencing, are all included free with your VOIP service plan. Your POTS company will only provide these services if you pay them extra fees for each service.
3. No Cost for Incoming Calls. Whenever anyone calls you on your VOIP line, there is no charge for the incoming call. Compare this with cellular service where every incoming call counts as minutes used in your cellular plan.
4. Easy Setup. When you sign up for VOIP service, a free VoIP "modem" is shipped to you in 5 to 10 days. If you want one sooner, you can buy it at a store for same-day service and the VoIP provider will reimburse you for the purchase or credit it against your bill.
5. Huge local calling area. With VoIP, calls to anywhere in the US and Canada are genrally charged as local calls. In some VOIP plans, even calls to many countries in Western Europe, Asia and South America are included at no extra charge. For calls to other countries, the per-minute international dialing rates are much lower than those of the tradional long distance plans you are used to.
6. Virtual Phone Numbers for Local Calls from Distant Friends. For a low price (usually about $5 per month), you can have a second phone number in almost any area code, so friends or family in that area code can dial a local number that rings on your phone. So if your Mom in North Carolina (919 area code) dials your 919 virtual phone number, she only pays local phone charges because her phone company sees this as a local phone call.
7. Low-cost 800 Numbers. Want to make it free for a lot of callers without bankrupting you? Most VoIP providers offer cheap 800 numbers - free to the caller, fixed monthly rate for you (varies, but roughly $5 for the first 100 minutes each month, then 4.5-cents or so per minute beyond that).
8. Take your home or office phone number with you when you travel. Your phone number travels with you when you take your VOIP modem with you. So just pack the VoIP modem in your suitcase and upon arrival, plug it into any high-speed Internet connection (in your hotel room, friend or relative's house, airport, whatever). Now you can place and receive calls made to your regular phone number. So even if you are on vacation in Italy, someone calling your home or office number in Des Moines will never know you're not in Iowa when you answer. If you call someone back in Des Moines, your usual Caller ID shows and that person thinks you are still in Des Moines.

So are there any disadvantages to getting VOIP? Yes, there are a few, but mostly these are minor problems that will be worked out in the near future. Here are some examples:

1. The VOIP signal is very clear and the familiar slight buzz of a POTS system when no one is talking is absent. In other words, there is a dead buzz-free silence when no one is talking, which can sometimes make you think the connection is broken, even though it isn't.
2. If someone puts you on silent hold (i.e., no background music or sound), the VOIP service can simply disconnect you after a few minutes because it thinks the phone was left off the hook.
3. If your internet service goes down, you have no phone service. Therefore, it is a good idea to have a limited cellphone service plan as a reliable backup.

So yes there are a few potential disadvantages, but in practice the cost savings that arise from switching to VOIP greatly outweigh any small problems. Many thousands of people are switching over to VOIP, so why not give it a try!