What is V.O.I.P?
Voice over IP (VoIP) is a general term for a family of transmission technologies for delivery of voice communications over IP networks such as the Internet or other packet-switched networks. Other terms frequently encountered and synonymous with VoIP are IP telephony, Internet telephony, voice over broadband (VoBB), broadband telephony, and broadband phone.

Internet telephony refers to communications services — voice, facsimile, and/or voice-messaging applications — that are transported via the Internet, rather than the public switched telephone network (PSTN). The basic steps involved in originating an Internet telephone call are conversion of the analogue voice signal to digital format and compression/translation of the signal into Internet protocol (IP) packets for transmission over the Internet; the process is reversed at the receiving end.[1]

VoIP systems employ session control protocols to control the set-up and tear-down of calls as well as audio codecs which encode speech allowing transmission over an IP network as digital audio via an audio stream. Codec use is varied between different implementations of VoIP (and often a range of codecs are used); some implementations rely on narrowband and compressed speech, while others support high fidelity stereo codecs.

How does it work?
It's likely you're using internet telephony without realising it already, it's increasingly used as the background technology for normal calls and it's known as VoIP (voice over internet protocol).
With traditional calls there's a constantly open pipeline with information streaming both ways.
Voip better uses high-speed technology and computer processing power. Think of it a bit like this; with Voip your voice is split into short pieces which are turned into packets of data.
These are then bulleted along the line and reassembled at the other end. At the same time other peoples' conversations are also bulleted along the line. So one line carries much more information – and that's why it's cheaper to operate.

Skype® http://www.skype.com
PC to PC
You’ve downloaded Skype, and so has your friend. Now you can get started by making completely free and great quality calls from your computer. That’s the great thing about Skype, you can use your internet connection and turn your computer into an internet video phone.

Skype Out
Call people who aren’t on Skype by using Skype to call landlines and mobiles worldwide, at amazing rates. Simply dial a phone number, then start saving, call phones worldwide from 1.7c/min or 98c/month.

Payment
There are two ways to pay to make calls: monthly subscriptions include unlimited calls to landlines in selected countries and regions – you can also get up to 50% off an online number. Or, with Pay As You Go you add some money to your account and then you just pay for calls as you make them. There's a flat rate of just 1.7 euro cents¹ per minute (incl. VAT) to over 30 destinations; and here's a big list of rates to destinations everywhere else in the world.

Payment can be made by credit card, PayPal, voucher or bank transfer.

VoipCheap http://www.voipcheap.com
What is VoipCheap?
Free call to landlines from either your PC or home telephone

Free Calls – 90 Days
By pacing 10€ credit you receive free phone calls to over 50 countries including UK, Spain USA & Australia. (Maximum of 300 minutes per week).

Pricing
After your free days you start using your 10€ credit at 1c / min, when this is used up you receive a further 90’ days free credit by purchasing another 10€ of credit.

PC to Landline
Just use the PC headphones and mike and dial the number on the PC dial pad.

Landline / Mobile to Landline / Mobile
Enter on your computer the country you are calling from, it will give you a prefix number you should dial on your landline before the international number. The prefix number is charged by your telephone company at the standard local rate. (In Spain, if your are on broadband, local rate calls are free)

VoipStunt http://www.voipstunt.com/
The same as VoipCheap.

Fring® – Smartphone  App http://www.fring.com
What is it?
fring lets users communicate and share experiences across social networks, mobile operators, device platforms and internet access connections.

fring leverages your mobile phone's internet capabilities to establish direct connections between friends (peer-to-peer). This proprietary peer-to-peer connectivity between friends over the internet (IP) enables pure VoIP communication – both between mobile phones and between mobile phones and PCs.  (All Smartphones except Blackberry).

fring is optimized for mobile phones and dynamically adapts to the optimal connectivity and mobile phone characteristics so users can enjoy seamless roaming VoIP across multiple networks. The dedicated three-sided P2P network architecture has been developed to support near telco-grade voice quality and network efficiency.
fring supports 1000s of devices across multiple platforms including Symbian S60, iPhone/iPod touch, Android, Windows Mobile, J2ME & Linux devices and operates on any available mobile internet connection (3G, Wi-Fi, GPRS, EDGE &WiMax).

Fring Add-Ons
fringadd-ons are cool web applications which maximize the social power of your mobile handset. Whether it’s listening to music, communicating with friends from all the most popular social networks like MSN, Gtalk, Skype, Last.fm, or viewing what your friends are upto on Twitter, Facebook etc., fringadd-ons help you create the type of fring that’s right for you.

Unlike other mobile applications, there are no downloads needed - fringadd-ons are selected from a continually growing catalogue which is updated automatically each time you log-in. All you need to do is to register to the Add-on you want and away you go (please note, some fringadd-ons require accounts to be set-up outside of fring first)

 

Google Talk™ http://www.google.com/talk/
What is it?
It is a downloadable chat application by Google. Google Talk can:
Instant messages: share quick thoughts in real time
Status updates: see if friends are around and what they are up to
File transfer: instantly send and receive files, pictures, and more

Talk / Video add-on
Free long distance: make PC-to-PC calls to people anywhere in the world
Audio conferencing: talk to multiple people at once
Gmail integration: chat with your friends on Gmail

S.I.P. Routers
What is S.I.P.
Short for Session Initiation Protocol, it is an application-layer control protocol; a signalling protocol for Internet Telephony. SIP can establish sessions for features such as audio/videoconferencing, interactive gaming, and call forwarding to be deployed over IP networks, thus enabling service providers to integrate basic IP telephony services with Web, e-mail, and chat services. In addition to user authentication, redirect and registration services, SIP Server supports traditional telephony features such as personal mobility, time-of-day routing and call forwarding based on the geographical location of the person being called.

What is a S.I.P. Router?
Connects directly to your ADSL Modem Router and allows you to connect a normal telephone and make VOIP calls over your ADSL line without going through software on your PC.

Tip of the month
Eco Font http://www.ecofont.com/