and even the Internet to carry non-data traffic is nothing new. Like many new IT initiatives, VoIP to many people will be a handset that plugs into a USB port allowing you to chat to your friend in Hong Kong on the cheap, even for free. Well things have moved on, the big names from data have moved into telephony, the telephone folk have moved into data - there is a whole new market and its big business.
VoIP simply is the transport of voice traffic by using IP (Internet Protocol), it must be noted though that this does not just imply voice over the Internet.
The main challenge of providing a packetized voice service is quality. When considering the IP environment this is mainly provided by Bandwidth (network integrity) and the ability of the network management to provide acceptable voice Quality of Service. This is not currently available over the public Internet (internet telephony), mainly due to the lack of regulations in place to handle bandwidth. However VoIP is possible over managed IP networks where QOS (Quality of Service) solutions and SLA 's (Service level agreements) exist between providers.
In migrating to converged VoIP Technology, Investment costs can be kept to a minimal as much of the required infrastructure already exists. Maintenance costs can be reduced, e.g. technical issues resolved by one IT- department, and Operation costs minimised, e.g. calls within the data network are at no additional charge.
