According to Wikipedia, Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is “the routing of voice conversations over the Internet or any other IP-based network. The voice data flows over a general-purpose packet-switched network, instead of traditional dedicated, circuit-switched voice transmission lines.”
Now, the crux of the matter here is that, many of the different VoIP software are not compatible. In most cases, the VoIP providers just offer free PC-to-PC calling within their network and make money from calls terminated on traditional phone lines.
Now, though VoIP is slowly becoming commonplace, (I believe it’s the future of telephony) the systems are simply not compatible! I find it difficult to understand why these systems are not built to interact. Do these VoIP providers expect everyone to download about 10 VoIP software?
This year, Microsoft and YAHOO! announced their intention to make MSN Messaging and Yahoo! Messaging systems compatible, so users on either sides can chat. When would VoIPs do this? Are there any two compatible systems out there? Someone please tell me, because I don’t know of any.
I hope they are listening: Skype, Vonage, Deltathree, Net2Phone, Google Talk, Yahoo Messenger with Voice etc.
