IP Telephony also called VoIP is an acronym for Voice over Internet Protocol, or in more common terms phone service over the Internet. If you have a reasonable quality Internet connection you can get phone service delivered through your Internet connection instead of from your local phone company. VoIP is also referred to as IP telephony, Internet telephony, voice over broadband, broadband telephony, and broadband phone. In general a business phone system via VoIP costs less than equivalent service from traditional sources. This is largely a function of traditional phone services either being monopolies or government entities. Small and Medium-Sized Business (SMB) with multiple branch offices, large numbers of customers and suppliers, and higher percentages of mobile and telecommuting employees, are especially good candidates for IP communication solutions, whose most well-known benefit is the substantial cost savings.
Here is a list of the VoIP features (Basic Features) you can have with your service provider: Call Blocking, Caller ID, Caller ID, Call Forwarding, Call Waiting, Fax, Last Number Re-dial, Local Number Portability, Voicemail, 3-way Calling, fax-to-email. That technology can be deployed as a hardware-based, software-based or hosted VoIP solution, meaning solution providers are not limited to a certain form in order to take advantage of the system's features.
