Sip ‘N Talk!

No, I’m not asking you to sip your favorite drink and talk on the phone but instead this article is about SIP and it’s benefits, most notably VoIP. I won’t go into the technicalities of SIP because frankly speaking, it can be quite a bore for the most of us. The following text from Wikipedia should give you a heads-up on SIP:

Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is a protocol developed by the IETF MMUSIC Working Group and proposed standard for initiating, modifying, and terminating an interactive user session that involves multimedia elements such as video, voice, instant messaging, online games, and virtual reality. In November 2000, SIP was accepted as a 3GPP signaling protocol and permanent element of the IMS architecture. It is one of the leading signaling protocols for Voice over IP, along with H.323.

SIP clients use TCP and UDP port 5060 to connect to SIP servers. SIP is only used in setting up and tearing down voice or video calls. All voice/video communications are done over RTP.

As you can see, SIP is a protocol just like FTP or HTTP, but this article is about VoIP through SIP, and why am I not titling this article with VoIP? That’s because I wish the stress my preference for SIP over the P2P nature of other applications such as Skype. Skype is based on a proprietary protocol which means that you can only use it for/with what the Skype developers allow you too. Meanwhile, SIP based VoIP software such as Gizmo give you a universal SIP number, which can be used not only with Gizmo, but also with other hardware devices as well as software.

Firstly, with SIP (Gizmo), you will never encounter the problem of incompatible hardware because there is some or the other SIP software for all platforms, SIP being an open technology. For audio, Skype uses a proprietary format whereas SIP makes use of H323, another open standard. Open source enthusiasts now know where to go!

So, does Skype really offer an advantage over Gizmo. Well, two in fact, and important ones at that. Firstly - marketing. Skype is well established in the market and because of far better media presence people take their first step into VoIP with Skype even though Gizmo is just as easy. Secondly, SkypeOut prices for dialing to traditional phones are cheaper, and with Skype you have a wider range of landline numbers from around the world that you can choose from, and for heavy users that pay big bills, this is more than enough. The verdict then? Technomaniacs seen to be set to embrace Gizmo and SIP whereas most people that use VoIP for cutting costs rather than making free online calls should stay with Skype unless Gizmo drops prices.