VOIP has become a force to reckon with in the telecom sector with many people and businesses saving considerable time and resources by opting for a relatively inexpensive voice over internet protocol - VOIP. VOIP has many advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages of VOIP

- The main advantage is the amount of money you end up saving on your phone bills as compared to a traditional phone line.
- Inexpensive and easy to use. Since it is simple, upgrading is relatively simpler too.
- You can integrate it with an existing phone connection.
- With VOIP PC-to-PC, calls are free no matter the distance and PC-to-Phone charges are nominal.
- For a monthly fee you may make unlimited free calls within a geographic area.
- A virtual number enables you to make calls from anywhere as long as a broadband connection is available.
- You may purchase a number in a geography area of your choice, which works out very cheap. If your relatives and friends live in Virginia and you moved to California, you may purchase a Virginia number and make local calls to your loved ones.
- You may access your VOIP account just like your email Id from any where in the world as long as you have an internet phone. This makes it easy for those who travel frequently to make calls frequently to those back at home at local call rates, no matter where they are.
- You may call or message or do both at the same time with VOIP services.
- VOIP cost about half the cost of traditional phone services and it seems that the taxes and surcharges are much lower. Also your bill is easier to understand and it can be viewed via the Internet.

Disadvantages of VOIP

- Loss of service during outages.
- Without power VOIP phones are useless, so in case of emergencies during power cuts it can be a major disadvantage.
- With VOIP emergency calls, it is hard to locate you and send help in time.
- Some times during calls, there may be periods of silence when data is lost while it is being unscrambled.
- Latency and traffic.
- No standard protocol is applicable.

The disadvantages of VOIP could be annoying, but their effects are relatively limited. The complaints of VOIP are usually tolerable if the callers are using a free service. As the technology is advancing, we will expect the VOIP quality will match the traditional telephone technology.

These are some of advantages and disadvantages of VOIP. All said and done, we could say that the advantages of VOIP outweigh the disadvantages of it.

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