Too many locations use separate networks for voice and data; justifications are disappearing very rapidly for that arrangement.

Voice communication transmits as continuously varying acoustic waves. As a child, I built string telephones; 50-feet mechanical transfers of acoustic energy were nothing short of amazing. However, sound waves lose energy in a very short distance and any obstruction alters waveform characteristics. For reliable reception over distance, voice communication must be a more focused and less mutable transfer.

When sound waves are directed at a diaphragm, coupled to a magnet, a changing magnetic field results. Few people are unfamiliar with some account of Alexander Graham Bell using this phenomenon. Similar results are achieved when electricity passes through carbon granules as acoustic forces change the density of those granules.

History lesson

During the earlier days of long distance telephony, data store and non-verbal data transfer required modification to paper media. The paper data store did not translate easily onto analog telephone media. In practice, reliable data transfer required meticulous attention to faithful duplication and an often unjustified faith in reliability of courier services.

Many developments improved reliability, distance, and speed of data transfer during the middle third of the twentieth century. The teleprinter was introduced; data store migrated from punched cards and paper tape to magnetic tape and other magnetic media. International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) proposed standard data encoding into eight binary digits for a byte. Pulse Code Modulation (PCM) facilitated digital representation of analog signals. Digital Data System (DDS) service circuits gave rise to extended data networks ... and then there was the 1984 American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T) divestiture.

The division of voice and data was, originally, a natural one. Time changes many things; presently, nearly all analog voice communication is transmitted in streams of digitized samples. The difference between digitized voice and digital data is merely a technical one.

Enough history

The technical differences between digitized voice and digital data are most significantly matters of timing. Data appliances are very forgiving with unpredictable packet arrival rates. The human mind is much less tolerant when those packets represent audio waves. Quality of Service (QoS) schemes give Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) data higher priority than other, less demanding, data streams. Without those priority assignments, a VoIP conversation would include unnatural pauses while audio packets are buffered.

All said, current VoIP technology is quite acceptable. In practice, VoIP traffic, when properly configured on terrestrial broadband facility, is mostly indistinguishable from voice calls on the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). The greatest difference is a pleasant discovery when the invoice arrives; monthly residence charges can include unlimited national calling for less than twenty dollars. Even totally free calling is possible after investing in inexpensive VoIP terminal equipment.

But wait, there's a sense of magic with VoIP. VoIP service is not a dedicated assignment. Pack your VoIP phone when you travel; VoIP service can reestablish *anywhere* you connect to the Internet with acceptable bandwidth.

Now ... the bad news ...

First, the speed of light is still 300,000 meters per second. If you plan to use a geostationary satellite in the path of your Internet connection, prepare for no less than a half-second for immediate responses; your conversation takes a minimum course of 160,000 meters -- double that if your correspondent uses another earth-orbital route. That delay is called latency, and satellite routes can add seconds of uncomfortable pause to voice communication; but, if you have experienced communication with people halfway around the world (over transoceanic cable) you already know discomfort in half-second latencies.

Second, VoIP telephones are not extensions to a single line without additional hardware. Fortunately, "build-your-own" Private Branch eXchange (PBX) servers are available at a fraction of commercial products; these servers can be built from modest retired computer hardware. To connect the PSTN, some budget modems will suffice. Of course, VoIP connectivity requires some Ethernet (802.x) variation. The PBX server should have a 500 megahertz (or higher) processor. The most popular PBX software, Asterisk, will work quite well with a mere 256 megabytes of RAM and a 10 gigabyte hard disk; installation of asterisk is almost painless with the TrixBox bundled system. The price of the previously mentioned software is quite fair at $0 -- if you want to download the installation image and burn it to a CD. Be warned: TrixBox installations do not respect any data on the target system drive.

Finally, fine-tuning VoIP configurations could require the aid of an Information Technology professional. A professional will be worth the price; your total investment could be much less than the difference of one year of VoIP subscription from one year of traditional telephone service.