The Impact of the Internet on Communication

The Impact of the Internet on Communication

The internet has revolutionized all forms of communication since the beginning of its existence. The world has now become ‘smaller’ or more like a ‘global village’, so to speak. The internet was first used by the U.S military for communications purposes. The internet, from the communication point of view, has brought on new developments and techniques to keep in touch not only for individuals, but for businesses as well. An example of how the internet has impacted communication would be an example of doctors now communicating through live video feeds via the internet with patients or other doctors to diagnose patients or to even guide and advise surgeons through complicated procedures.

Email

Email (electronic mail) was one of the biggest breakthroughs in communication when the internet was commercialized. With email, it became possible to send messages and letters across the world in a matter of seconds to the recipients address. Email was used as an alternative to conventional mail or ‘snail’ mail, as the term was introduced to describe its speed. As technology improved, it became possible to ‘attach’ documents, photographs and even sound clips or songs to emails which made mail by post redundant. Emails used packet switching software whereby the email was broken down into ‘packets’ and sent via the internet to the recipient.

VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol)

Internet Voice, also known as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), is a technology that allows you to make regular telephone calls using a dial up or broadband internet connection instead of a regular phone line. Some services using VoIP may only allow you to call other people using the same service, but others may allow you to call anyone who has a telephone number - including local, long distance, mobile, and international numbers. Also, while some services only work over your computer or a special VoIP phone, other services allow you to use a traditional phone through an adaptor.

This type of technology has made life easier for both corporate businesses and commercial usage. It has made long distance calling much cheaper and in some cases, free. Businesses can communicate with each other and set up voice conferences which can range across many countries.

Why use VoIP?

There are two major reasons to use VoIP:

• Lower cost;

• Increased functionality

Lower Cost

In general, phone service via VoIP costs less than equivalent service from conventional telephone companies. There are also some cost savings due to using a single network to carry voice and data. This is especially true when users have existing under-utilized network capacity that they can use for VoIP without any additional costs. In the most extreme case, users see VoIP phone calls (even international) as free. While there is a cost for their Internet service, using VoIP over this service may not involve any extra charges, so the users view the calls as free. There are a number of services that have sprung up to facilitate this type of "free" VoIP call; for example, ‘Skype’, is a VoIP client whereby you can either make free calls between computers or you can dial to landlines for a small charge as compared to telephone exchanges.

Increased Functionality

Incoming phone calls are automatically routed to your VoIP phone where ever you plug it into the network. Take your VoIP phone with you on a trip, and anywhere you connect it to the Internet, you can receive your incoming calls.

Call center agents using VoIP phones can easily work from anywhere with a good Internet connection.

Web cams

As internet connection speeds improved, and internet service providers (ISP’s) offered more bandwidth to their customers, web cams became popular among consumers and businesses both as now it became possible for people to see each other via their