Internet is most commonly used medium for sharing files over a network. Electronic mail soon became popular amongst the masses. Soon voice and video files were being transferred through the means of the internet. This then lead to the discovery of the Internet Telephone which made use of Internet Protocol as a process for routing the packets.

The main advantage of internet telephony is the cost factor which is quite less when compared with the normal PSTN connection. In today’s world, many of the manufacturers are targeting PC as a medium for VOIP. The main reason why many business enterprises go in for VOIP is for the integration of its communication system. It also helps to reduce cost and paperwork. VOIP is a good option to start since they provide quality voice transmission and much more.

Internet telephony basically means the transmission of a voice message with the help of Internet Protocol. This is an ideal option for users who have access to free or priced internet service and the call charges will be very affordable when compared with the regular telephone calls. The VOIP software provides cheap telephone calls to any place in the world.

Many hotshot companies like Microsoft, Cisco and many more support and implement SIP as their VOIP protocol. Other benefits of internet telephony are the introduction of VOIP boxes that gives the user the same experience as using a normal telephone. This enables the user to make calls without the use of a microphone, speaker etc.

Internet is changing the outlook of many industries since traditional telephony is now being accompanied by IP based telephony. The benefit of this integration is that it not only reduces the cost on long distance calls but it also provides more communication options to the users.

There are many internet telephony applications available in the market today. Some applications like, like Cool Talk and NetMeeting are even integrated with the web browsers. These products are sometimes referred to as IP telephony, Voice over the Internet (VOI) or Voice over IP (VOIP) products. Apart from this, there are plenty of companies which offer VOIP services to the users.

Indeed internet telephony aims to capture the imagination of the plain old telephone users and gives them a lot of options which were not available with the traditional telephones. It is now becoming a key platform for data convergence and the merging of PSTN with the internet.

When this service was first introduced, the transfer of files and documents were slow at the beginning. Later on other methods and techniques were developed to enhance the transfer process. Therefore internet telephony is gaining a lot of popularity in the business world and it is very apparent that this technology is here to stay.