VOIP Solution and Service

In a deal between two of the internet’s most prominent properties, Google will be selling advertising on web auction leader eBay and help buyers quickly ring an online merchant to do business.

The arrangement promises to introduce “click to call” website technology to a broader audience and potentially speed its adoption as a means to quickly connect online consumers with advertisers.

Last year, eBay bought the internet phone service, Skype. Google has its own messaging and voice telephone service, Google Talk. Both services will be used in the partnership, though the details were not disclosed.

Under the partnership, Google would become the exclusive provider of text advertising on eBay outside the US. The second component of the alliance calls for the two Silicon valley companies to work together on developing a service that lets surfers place telephone calls through their computers or handheld devices when they click on a link in an internet ad.

eBay’s chief executive, Meg Whitman said that eBay has decided ti give Google’s advertisers access to its international auction sites after choosing yahoo for its domestic advertising because of the competing internet search engines’ respective strengths and how they mesh with eBay’s assets.

San Jose-based eBay also owns PayPal, the online payment service, and when the company joined advertising forces with Yahoo, PayPal became preferred payment provider for purchases made on Yahoo. Similarly, eBay palns to rely on Google’s international presence to build a worldwide market for Skype.

As the popularity of the ever evolving VoIP technology is growing day by day, the question “whether VoIP has truly arrived at a stage to completely replace its long time competitor PSTN?” has occupied the minds of more and more consumers. Thus, to be able to find a answer to this question we have to understand the technological aspects of both these technologies deeply.

Each technology has its advantages as well as disadvantages. For instance, PSTN or Public Switched Telephone Network is a well established and trusted technology that is easy to maintain and has a hassle free set-up process with a simple usage procedure. However, this old and trusted technology is not free of drawbacks. Some of its major drawbacks are, it needs a dedicated line to make a call; it has limited scalability; it makes optimum usage of bandwidth impossible; the consumers have to pay monthly rent above their call charges which themselves are very high.

VoIP which has taken the telecommunications industry by storm employs packet switching method of data transmission which gives a boost to the effective transmission rate. VoIP makes concurrent transmission of data, voice and video possible. It has got high scalability. As the data is sent over the network in compressed format, proper utilization of bandwidth is rendered possible. The World Wide Web, which is in the public domain, is used as the backbone of the network, that’s why hardware requirements are a bare minimum. The enhanced efficiency which becomes evident due to the proper utilization of bandwidth leads to massive reduction in the costs incurred per call. Value added services which are charged heavily under PSTN are offered free of cost with VoIP. However, in VoIP sometimes the voice quality is not good and the sound echoes.

Thus, although VoIP scores heavily over PSTN it is still to overtake it completely. Thus, it is advisable to use a hybrid system with VoIP being in the core of the system & PSTN in the periphery. This arrangement would ensure that you get most of both the technologies and would not be dependent on one.

One of the foremost VoIP service providers in United States and Canada is Packet8 which is owned by 8X8, Inc., which is a U.S. company located in Santa Clara, CA. and has made a significant contribution to the development and advancement of broadband phone technology since 1987.

Packet8 broadband phone service was introduced for residential use in 2002 and for small and medium businesses in 2004. It was the first VoIP provider to deliver video phone service. Using technologies that they have developed and patented themselves, Packet8 has become one of today’s best VoIP providers in terms of service, reliability, and market share. Offering unlimited local and long distance service within US and Canada for $19.95 per month, Packet8 is one of the lowest cost internet phone service providers in the USA. Great features like voicemail, voicemail to email, call forwarding, call waiting, caller ID, call return, and call blocking are available for free. Moreover, they are continually adding service enhancements and new features, all designed to work seamlessly with the Uniden 1868P whole house phone system as well as their videophone. Enhancements planned for summer 2006 are caller ID with name and a new soft phone service called Packet8 Softalk. A soft phone is a PC-based telephone; most of the larger VoIP carriers are now offering softphone service due to the huge popularity of the service that Skype is now famous for. Thus, depending on your needs, Packet8 VoIP service may or may not be the perfect fit for you, but it is definitely worth considering.

Read More: Packet8

Today the telecommunications market is flooded by a host of VoIP phones. However, to know which one is the best and satisfies all the demands of a consumer, one has to look into the Reviews of VoIP Phones.

Some of the major VoIP phone models available in the market today are Action Tec Skype Adaptor, Cisco 7960G, D-Link VoIP router 1402s, Fritz Box for WLAN 7050, ip Dialog Sip Tone II, K-Phone 4.2, RapidBox Skype Adaptor, Siemens USB Gigaset S645, Speed Touch 716v5 ADSL IAD (combined), etc. Some of these have been reviewed below.

There’s not much more to know about the Action Tec. It works as if it contains the same technology as the highly rated RapidBox device. It’s a versatile little box that won’t look out of place on your desk, and it does exactly what it says it does. Like any hardphone Cisco 7960G’s key advantages over a softphone, is that your not dependant on a PC for telephony, so no issues with applications and handsets/headsets/mikes & earpieces, or leaving the PC switched on, with the application running to receive calls. Though being on the expensive side its worth every penny spent on it, as its audio quality is exceptional. RapidBox is not an ATA device or an IP phone. It is a USB VoIP adapter with size smaller than your palm. Speed Touch 716v5 ADSL IAD (combined) is a brand new ADSL router from Thomson which allows sharing of high speed internet access combined with high quality VoIP access with IP QOS for the voice traffic. Hence, it is an excellent box that is also well priced.

Read More: Voip Review