Why calling a friend by internet is cheaper than calling by dailing his number ?

Replies

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  durga ch

  When you call through internet , you are using a service called as VoIP, where the vocie packets are setn across as data packets over your internet.in sense voice is the payload. As you dont pay for excluive browing over internet . or for downloading ( unless its a paid download), you generally do it so called free, while paying only for you ISP. VoIP is same.
  For example-
  When you intially connect to a friend of yours, you register your session with XYZ sip server. Since your friend as well is a registerd user of the SIP server, the server looks for their details ( IP address) and sends the packets to their computer. Since the whole process is packet switched and there is no specific differentiation between voice packets/data packets its all looks free
  but where as when you make a call via phone, you are asking your mobile phone provider to allocate you with a channel. The allocation of channel is rather asking for a lease of a specific freq for you to trasnmit your voice over. Hence it costs money. The more you talk, the more engaged your channel is. Since a phone proivder has limited specturm , you pay as you use
• 

  ISHAN TOPRE

  So is there any idea which will make phone calling cheaper/ free of cost? If not today then in near future?
• 

  durga ch

  @IShan
  i am apprehensive about that situation , because any wireless device needs a freq to communicate .
• 

  silverscorpion

  Hmm..
  
  This difference in price comes because of different types of services being used.. They are voice and data.
  As Durga said, voice requires the subscriber to hold on to a band of frequencies for the duration of the call, but data traffic doesn't have any such requirements.
  So, data is cheaper than voice. Or, at least, it appears to be so.
  
  But, as we move towards 4G, the wireless communication scene is slowly going towards an all IP architecture.. Once 4G technologies like LTE get implemented, there will be no difference between voice and data traffic, since everything will be IP based.. So, the premise that voice uses more resources and so it must be costly will become false..
  
  I would go as far to predict that, once 4G becomes a reality, voice will mostly be given away for free, and revenue models will be based heavily on data alone. Because, in that scenario, nobody can afford to charge for voice traffic exclusively..
• 

  nerdy_me

  @silverscorpion : But through skype , we do audio/video chat which employs transferring of voice . then why is it costless??
• 

  Morningdot Hablu

  @nerdy_me look at above post nerdy as durga said voice data packets are added to playload and send to the receiver.So as your downloading and browsing are free no need to pay for that.
• 

  silverscorpion

  nerdy_me

  @silverscorpion : But through skype , we do audio/video chat which employs transferring of voice . then why is it costless??

  In Skype, voice is also sent as data, over IP only. That's why it's called VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol).
  Skype doesn't use any spectrum. In other words, it uses your own service provider's bandwidth for providing a call service.
  Hence, it's mostly free. However, you can make calls to phones from Skype too, and they are not free.
  Because, when it comes to phone calls, you will need use of the spectrum, and that can't be free. At least, not yet.