| How the phone works is actually a work in progress. | | | | uses the internet system to receive and transmit |
| Technology is advancing at a rate faster than most of | | | | phone calls. This technology has exploded in home |
| us can keep up with. The phone you buy today will be | | | | usage and also business usage because of the low |
| outdated before your upgrade time. | | | | cost and flexibility. For business usage it has |
| Some of us are old enough to remember playing the | | | | revolutionized the answering and routing of calls. |
| inventor and taking two tin cans, punching holes in the | | | | Several small business phone system programs have |
| bottom, running a string between them and stretching it | | | | sprang up which become an answering machine and |
| tight. When we spoke in them it vibrated the bottom of | | | | phone routing system all in one. |
| the can and we heard a distorted version of what | | | | With these systems the calls are routed to a |
| was said. The old traditional phones used this principle | | | | computer program which routes the call to whatever |
| of taking the vibrations in the handset and converting | | | | phone is chosen, or can answer it with a message and |
| them into electrical pulses and sending the through the | | | | give the caller a choice of where they want to be |
| wires and converting them back to vibrations on the | | | | routed. The brilliance of this kind of system is that it |
| other end. | | | | can also route calls to other phone, similar to call |
| Then came the digital phones, which compresses | | | | forwarding, and fewer calls are missed. These |
| voice information into binary code (a series of zeros | | | | systems are inexpensive and many times can replace |
| and ones) using computer technology. This voice | | | | an attendant or provide a free answering service for |
| information which is compressed at the initial callers | | | | incoming calls. |
| end is them sent along the network and then | | | | The growth of the internet calling, VoIP, has and will |
| decompressed at the receiving end. The numbers are | | | | continue to grow due to the low cost and the |
| connected through a central phone switching system | | | | possibility to make calls anywhere with no or little cost. |
| of routers, to send it in the right direction. This is where | | | | If you are reading this you probably have a computer, |
| the area codes and prefixes on your number comes | | | | therefore you have the technology to do the same. |
| into play, so the routers know where to send the | | | | The question of how does the telephone work is an |
| number. | | | | open ended question as the technology advances. |
| Then comes the voice over internet protocol | | | | Most of us can not envision where phone technology |
| technology, VoIP. This technology which is purely digital | | | | will take us next. |