Telephony

/ˌeɪ ˈɛm/

noun … “sending sound by stretching and shrinking a carrier wave.”

/ˈvɔɪp/

n. “Your phone, but over the internet instead of wires.”

VoIP, or Voice over Internet Protocol, is a technology that allows voice communications and multimedia sessions to be transmitted over IP networks, such as the internet, rather than traditional circuit-switched telephone lines. It converts analog audio signals into digital data packets, sends them over a network, and then reassembles them into sound at the receiving end, enabling phone calls, video calls, and conferencing entirely online.