Voice delivered using the IP. It is a term used in IP TELEPHONY for a set of facilities for managing the delivery of voice information using the IP. In general, this means sending voice information in digital form in discrete packets rather than in the traditional circuit-committed protocols of the public switched telephone network (PSTN). A major advantage of VoIP and Internet telephony is that it avoids the tolls charged by ordinary telephone service.
so who'll still be using ordinary phones yet they cost so much???

I think people will be using normal phones for quite some time. VoIP is just too slow and too bad quality at the moment to get close to normal phones. Then again, technology is advancing very quickly so a few years time could see the death of the landline in countries like the US and the UK.

well VoIP is a great technology and these days the voice quality has improved a lot....I work in Technical support and the voice quality is no problem at all...it sounds like a normal telephone i.e. PSTN.
I am sure that it will emerge much more and soon there will be phone which will be running on this technology and giving us much cheap rates or may be the google way..FREE

i'm currently using SKYPE, those of you using VOIP probably know what i'm tlaking about.
Its free to get and call other people with skype.
You can call normal phone landlines, but its not cheap.
and people can call your Skype from a landline (and possibly mobile) , but that service costs 30 euros a year, which isnt too bad i guess.
I'm using Skype due to beign at UNI and the phone being currently broken, and the payphone downstairs in the hall doesnt exactly have privacy.

i reccommend it

I think that in the future more people will do what I do, and rely on their cell phone and their primary phone. After a recent move I really didn't see the point of paying for both a land line and cell plan, so I just have a cell phone. From what I've seen I think that more and more people are doing the same.

people will probably want to all change to VoIP phones, but think about it, removing all the phone lines....even if they go slowly, it'll cost so much and put the big companies out of business, our economy will screw up. and it'll take forever.

VoIP, Voice over Internet Protocol, is a way to tranmit voice signals through the internet without using the POTS (Plain Old Telephone System) telephone network. Because it uses the Internet to transmit voice signals, it will require a modem that is powered for 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, everyday to replace the POTS system. Unfortunately, it required additional power supply to function the VoIP system, whereas the normal fixed-lines does require. Also, in times of power-cutoffs or backouts, VoIP network will simply go down whereas the POTS will still stay alive.

What about the pros of VoIP? The call rates of these new system are very much cheaper alternative as compared to POTS in terms of long run and especially making overseas calls. Making overseas calls on a POTS network will probably rate higher. However due to the internet-dependant technology, calls made to overseas will appear the same rate as calls made in local. Also, VoIP phones are now computerised and smarter, or rather a its a computer itself as it may be used to download phone numbers, profiles, ringtones, transmit multimedia messages and videos, videoconferencing etc.

VoIP technology is therefore the future of the telephone systems. However, I believe POTS will still stay as a form of a drop point or backup when power source is limited during emergencies.

Well, if you people have noticed, what is happening is that everything is shifting towards being digitized and having an IP. So in the near future your phone, TV, gaming console will be connected to the same network and each have an IP address. From the same network all services will be delivered; internet, TV, phone.

It was planned that this would happen with the fourth generation of mobile phones but I think it will still take some time

you are right itis cheap... however the quality didn't reach normal telephone quality... so people seeking voice quality will not move to VOIP....

anyway itis the future technology of voice communicatino after the expected spread of NGN networks...