What is the difference between my current phone service and VoIP?
Your current phone service most likely uses POTS lines or T1 PRIs to get dialtone. POTS stands for Plain Old Telephone Service. It is the dial tone service obtained through the PSTN (Public Switched Telephony Network) provided by your current phone company. With POTS lines or T1 PRIs, most businesses, pay a fee for local calling and then spend hundreds or even thousands per month on long distance calls through a separate carrier. VoIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol. It describes a technology that uses computer networks to communicate instead of the phone companies traditional switching network. VoIP can save tons of money on your long distance calling. Using a gateway provider (such as Ntelos , Vonage , etc.), a company makes long distance calls over the Internet (using VoIP). This bypasses the PSTN (phone company’s switching network) on the originating call saving 80 – 95% of the cost of the call. When using VoIP the digital phone sets use your computer network jacks rather t
