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What is a SIP account

SIP is a protocol for internet telephony (Voice over IP). A SIP account SIP is a kind of “key” which identifies the phone calls passed to your telephone. This enables you to make voice calls over IP.


What is VOIP (Voice over IP)

Telephony over IP (voice over IP) is a technique that allows voice to be convey over the Internet network using IP protocol.
The voice is no longer conveyed over traditional wire circuit (analog mode) but rather transmitted in the form of IP packets IP over the network. Each packet although belonging to the same communication (session) can take different paths to it destinations.
Telephony over IP has made considerable qualitative leap in the last few years: today, the quality of telephony over IP communications is very comparable to that of the traditional switched network (RTC or analog). Thanks to this technology, certain very interesting applications have become accessible which were not possible on RTC method.

How functions telephony on IP? The audio signal captured by the microphone is converted into a digital format by a program called a codec. This program compresses, formats the digital information using the IP protocol and transmit it through the Internet network. The opposite procedure is carried out at the receiving end of the chain, decompression and reconstrution of the analog audio signal.
There exists several algorithms for compression but all have the common objective: to optimize the size of the digit packet to convey but with the least possible deteriorating in quality of the signal. A good codec combines a minimal usage of band-width and sound quality of the signal, so that the signal remains acceptable to the receiver.

Interest in telephony over IP: Firstly interest for the voice on IP lies in the fact that the voice and the data from now on share the same “pipes” instead of the 2 separate networks (for telephony and a network of computer data). The data administration is thus simplified.
In addition, telephony over IP facilitates the development of applications which mingle voice with other types of data. An area which benefits from telephony over IP is that of the groupware: video conference, unified transport… .
Lastly, telephony over IP makes it possible to make important cost savings. Indeed, the price of communication over Internet is much cheaper than on a traditional connection (STN or digital). This is all the more true for the international communications for large companies. In the coming years, several countries are quickly adopting and rolling out telephony over IP.