We don't want to be too technical here so this is just a simple overview. The technogeeks already know the answer to this so should not need any explanations. This is just for us ordinary people.

"VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is a way of taking your voice, breaking it down into tiny little bits of data, and sending it over the Internet to another location. At that location, the bits are reassembled back into your voice. Your voice is treated like any other piece of Internet data, such as a Web page or audio file, distributed over the Net. While traditional calls require a separate circuit for each user, Internet calls share space on the network with everyone else. That's vastly more efficient than traditional phone technology." (Business Week Online 21 Sept 2004)

In the early days of VoIP, the service often sounded like 2 kids talking over a couple of tin cans.

Luckily, computers have now got a lot more powerful, connection speeds have increased and technology is now streets ahead of where it was a few years ago.

If you would like to get some idea of the quality of a call, there is a good test site at TestYourVoip or use our Speed Test page.

Nowadays, you have a few choices of how you can use the Internet to talk to any telephone in the world.