Voice over IP is the latest and advanced telecommunication technology. Even though this system is new, people are switching to this very fast because of one particular reason. It saves you a lot of money in phone bills. This new technology provides a much less expensive way to send and receive telephone calls. Internet systems work by sending packets of information over cables, wires, fiber optics, or using wireless technology. At the other end the packets are received and joined together to the original form. VOIP uses the same technology that makes the internet function.

VOIP works by sending packets of information that represent telephone voice information. Special VOIP modems handle the task of sending and receiving these packets, so what say and hear is the similar telephone voice signal they are used to hearing. A desirable feature of VOIP is that the sound quality is usually a lot better than older fashioned telephone systems because of the use of these digital Internet packets. The line is frequently so crisp that a lot of frequently think the line is disconnected because the recognizable drone of static is not there. So what do you need to make VOIP work for you? The main requirement is a high speed Internet connection. Luckily high speed Internet is obtainable approximately all over in the US, so the majority people can get and advantage from VOIP. Regardless of whether the high speed Internet service is DSL, VOIP service should work well providing the connection is sufficiently fast. And with the growing presence of high speed Internet even in little towns; VOIP will shortly be offered to everybody. So which companies offer VOIP plans? The most common VOIP service providers are as follows:

Vonage is the biggest well known and the more expensive Internet company that provide VOIP service plans, with an unlimited calling plan costs around 25 dollars per month. But many people use Vonage, primarily because of their aggressive advertising. It has started over the past two years or so.

- Sunrocket: Sunrocket offers reasonably reliable service starting as low as $17 per month. They are fairly new to the world of VoIP, but the technology has been around for a while and their low price gives them an edge over other services. - Mainstream telephone companies: The big companies do not like losing their ground to upstarts like Vonage and Sunrocket, so companies like Verizon that offer traditional telephones are now also offering a version of VoIP. They cost about the same as Vonage, so they have trouble competing. Their one edge is they may combine bills, so instead of being billed for phone and cable separately you would see it all on the same bill.

-Phone Carriers. Some of the traditional phone service providers also give VOIP plans. For model Verizon now offers their own version of VOIP service costing about 25 dollars per month. At this monthly price, Verizon compares well with Vonage, while it still needs a poorer price to be clever to compete with Sunrocket on the basis of price.

Long distance charges are expensive, and today everyone makes enough long distance calls to make a difference. Because of this, no matter who you choice as your VoIP carrier, you are pretty much guaranteed to get more talk time for less money, and you probably will end up with a few extra features, too!