To understand what a VoIP gateway is, you first need to understand what VoIP technology is. VoIP is the term used for Voice over Internet Protocol . It refers to the technology which facilitates transmission of voice traffic over internet networks. Internet protocol was originally developed for sharing data. After its immense success, the technology was adapted for sharing voice networking.

More and more number of business organizations have started to use VoIP instead of the traditional PSTN for communicating because it is cheaper and more useful than the other mediums of voice communications. Some of the benefits of using VoIP technology and VoIP phones include:

• VoIP facilitates to transmit more than one phone call on a single broadband phone line. Therefore, more telephone lines can be installed by the business at a lower cost.

  
  
  

• Like business phone systems , VoIP phones too, have many advanced features such as call forwarding, caller ID, call waiting etc. For these features, the businesses don' t have to pay any extra charges.
  





• VoIP offers unified and secured communications, which can be integrated with other internet based services such as video conferencing, web conferencing etc for enhancing the business communication.





• Now let us discuss what VoIP gateways are. Gateways are devices which convert telephony traffic into internet protocol so that data can be transferred over a network. These are generally used in the following two ways:
  
  

  • For converting PSTN to VoIP. A VoIP gateway facilitates to receive and place VoIP calls on a regular telephone network. With the VoIP technology, businesses can make larger volumes of calls at much lower prices.

    
    
    
    

  • To connect traditional PBX and other business phone systems to an IP network. A VoIP gateway allows making a call using VoIP technology instead of a regular telephone line. Business can either buy these services from a reputed and reliable VoIP service provider or can route the calls through the internet to reduce the call charges.

  
  
  

  VoIP gateways are available in the form of external units and PCI cards. However, most of the business organizations prefer using the external units as their VoIP devices. Every VoIP gateway has a connector for getting connected to the IP network and one or more number of ports for connecting the phones lines to it. For more information, you can visit : http://www.telcom-data.com/

  
  
  
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  Vivek is an experienced content writer and publisher for Telcom & Data Inc., a leading provider of avaya phone systems & conferencing phone
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  Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/business/communication/make-low-cost-high-quality-pc-to-phone-calls.html http://www.articletrader.com/business/communication/make-low-cost-high-quality-pc-to-phone-calls.html Wed, 16 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0500
  And this limitation fails the whole purpose of communication on the go, since it is not possible to always sit in front of (or carry one) a computer system. And you may need to call your friend or family at odd hours and when he is without a computer system. So is there any way you can make phone calls from your computer system to a telephone.
  
  The good news is, VoIP gives you the ability to make calls from your PC to any phone in the world. VoIP is a technology using which voice signals are carried over the Internet.
  
  Your computer receives your voice input via a microphone and then translates your voice into a ‘data packet’. This packet of data is then transmitted via the Internet to as close as possible to the physical destination of the telephone you’re calling. Your voice ‘data packet’ is then switched to the conventional telephone network and routed to the phone that you are calling. All of this data transmission, translation and switching takes place transparently and extremely quickly.
  
  The biggest advantage that PC to phone calls has is the cost of the call which is extremely low as compared to a conventional telephone call. This is because of the fact that by using the Internet to route your calls, long-distance charges imposed upon by the major telecommunication companies and governmental taxes are eliminated. This results in extremely cheap, long distance calling to conventional telephones around the world.
  
  If you too plan to make phone call from PC then all you need to do is choose a PC to Phone ServicesProvider. Fone2Talk is the leading provider of PC to phone calling cards or VoIP calling cards used for making phone call from PC.
  
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  Avinash smith
  
  Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]>