What makes an IP phone special?
Posted February 20, 2007You may have heard the term IP phone or VoiP phone, but what makes them so special as to warrant a whole new species of phone? On the surface they look like a reular business phone handset. They have a handset, speakerphone, programmable buttons, and a place to plug in your headset. Well, you can’t judge a book by it’s cover. It’s what inside that always makes the difference.
VoiP phones are like mini computers that connect to an internet connection. The VoiP phone is also known as IP phone or SIP phone. The IP phone comes loaded with customizeable software known as firmware that acts like an operating system, just like what Windows means to a PC. The difference is the software on the IP phone is very simple and designed to do one thing, find the feature server and stay connected to it permanently. The feature server is the actual equipment the phone is connecting to that fuels all of the powerful tools and features inherent in VoiP phone systems.
VoiP phones can find the feature server using any internet connection in the world. Not all VoiP phone systems allow you this feature, but the good ones do. What this means is phones can be moved seamlessly from office to office, home office, and around the world. It doesn’t matter if your overseas, if there is broadband internet access, the VoiP phone doesn’t care where you are. The ability to move IP phones around is seamless thanks to the fact it operates as a mini communications computer. So you can think of a VoiP phone as more of a small computer than a handset telephone.