In every field of life, people need to interact and communicate. The most easiest and attractive mean of communication is verbal communication. For interchanging opinions through voice, many devices, based on different technologies, are available. One of the striking devices is an IP phone. The synonyms for IP phones are VoIP telephones, SIP telephones and soft phones.

An IP phone is the communication device based on VoIP (Voice over internet protocol) technology instead of public switched telephone network. This technology permits the telephone calls to be made over the internet, using a general purpose computer. It works by converting the voice to digital signal and vice versa. It appears like an ordinary telephone or a cordless phone with buttons, display screen and a handset. The handset is connected to the sound card of the personal computer.

The hardware components required for receiving, and delivering voice messages through the IP phone are speaker, earphone, or microphone. For the exchange of voice, and digital messages, it has ADC, and DAC converter. The other necessary parts required are the general-purpose processor, Ethernet network hardware, and voice engines. Batteries and direct current sources are the generally used power sources for this. There is no need of separate wiring.

There is a direct connection of the IP phone with the router. Once you are connected with the router, then you are connected with the information-sharing network. All this is done with the help of the voice over internet protocol software. This software is very easily available; it can either be downloaded free, or can be bought for a small amount of money. With the help of an ATA adapter, you can easily convert an ordinary phone into an IP phone. The adapter works by taking the simple analogue signal, and converts it into the digital signal for its provision to the other end, over the internet.

An IP phone has loads of other features that make it an ideal choice for any business firm. The call management features are convenient, and cheap than the regular phone systems. Though different IP phones have different features, and functionalities but most phone have features like call waiting, call forwarding, call blocking, fax, local number portability, three way calling, CLI, and voice mail facility.

IP phones have a lot of benefits over any other means of communication. Home and business voice communication has become trouble-free by the use of IP phones. By using it, one can have easy access to anybody across the globe. It is the cheapest mean of access. You can make local and international calls free of cost. The only expense you have to pay is the internet service provider charges.

Two people can talk on the simple telephone. However, you can have a conference call through IP phone. In this manner, extensions can be made, and once access line can be used to handle many calls at a time. This is possible because of the compressed bandwidth that makes the transmission continuous and fool proof.

The portable nature of IP phone greatly increases its popularity. Staying at home, you can access your office or organisation through your IP phone. You can also customise an auto-attendant. All local and international calls can easily be diverted using IP technology.

The IP phones are dominating in the business world, and have brought convenience, and comfort for the people. It has all the qualities of a traditional phone, plus so many additional features for which you do not have to pay anything.