VoIP evolved from the traditional phone system.
But what is a traditional phone system, or a landline? How does it work?
Just to give you a brief idea about the traditional phone system so you
may appreciate VoIP even more. The traditional phone system is also
known as public switched telephone network,
PSTN.
It's a network of dedicated phone lines, switches,
and other equipment that is used to transmit phone calls.
You should also know that the traditional phone system, or a landline,
is also referred to as a plain old telephone system.
How do traditional phone systems work? Well,
they use dedicated phone lines to transmit audio calls and are the most
common type of phone system in use today. In a traditional phone system
when you make a call, your phone sends an electrical signal over a copper
phone line to a local telephone exchange,
which is a central switching center that routes calls to their destination.
The telephone exchange routes call to the appropriate phone line,
and the call is then connected.
The traditional phone system also have advanced features and
addons such as voicemail, call forwarding,
call waiting, conference calls,
which are implemented using switches and other
equipment within the telephone exchange.
However, it is not as feature rich as VoIP calls.
How has VoIP evolved from the traditional phone system?
VoIP was developed in the late 1990s as internet speeds and
reliability improved, and it became possible to transmit voice data
over the internet. The general data network was not always occupied
and was idle most of the time.
So the network engineers came up with an idea to transmit voice or audio
calls, as well as a data packet to utilize the freely‑available network
bandwidth. And that's how really VoIP came into play. Since then, VoIP has
become increasingly popular, and is now widely used by individuals and businesses around the world.