What Is Internet Telephony?

Internet telephony lets you make real-time voice, fax and even video calls over the Internet. Many small businesses are experimenting with Internet telephony, mainly because it can significantly reduce telecommunications costs.

You might also hear it called voice over IP (VoIP) or voice over the Internet (VoI). A somewhat synonymous term, IP telephony most commonly refers to voice calls routed over a private intranet or wide area network (WAN), as opposed to the public Internet.