One of the internet tools that can help in reducing telecommunication costs is a VoIP gateway

A VoIP Gateway, or Voice over IP Gateway is a necessity in your VOIP phone system because it serves as a bridge between the VOIP connection and your port, and is a network device that transmits telephony traffic over a data network by converts voice calls and video in real time.

Types of VoIP Gateways

To accomplish these functions there exists a variety of different VoIP Router.
Analog VoIp gatways
:Analog units are used to connect regular analog phone lines to it. Analog units are available for between 2-24 lines,
Analog IP gateways can be found in a number of configurations, from 4 ports to 48 ports. There are even combo analog VoIP gateways that feature both FXS and FXO ports.
Digital VoIP Gateways
Digital Voice over IP gateways come in four different configurations, T1, E1, J1 and BRI.
• T1 Gateways - T1 Gateways are used primarily in North America.
• E1 Gateways - E1 Gateways are used in Europe and most other parts of the world (except North America and Japan).
• J1 Gateways - J1 gateways are used in Japan.
• BRI Gateways - BRI gateways are used with ISDN service.
Digital IP gateways can be found in a number of channel configurations, from a single channel to 32 channels. Digital IP gateways usually ship in combo T1/E1 or T1/E1/J1 configurations.

Factors to consider when you are making your gateway purchase:

- Works with the full purposes of the service in mind.
- Will need to be significantly more up-to-speed than those of a personal system, if you are using it in your business company
- You need to ensure that the ports on the gateway are compatible with those on your private branch exchange (PBX) equipment
- Your gateway must support the protocol used by your network's VoIP system.

VOIP gateway manufacturers

There are lots of VOIP gateways available on the market today, here are the most popular companies offre VoIP gatewys :
Cisco :
D-Link
NetGear
Linksys
Hypermedia
Skype

A VOIP gateway service is necessary for handling more than one call system at a time. Businesses use them as a part of their daily operation if they use Voice Over Internet Protocol . As gateways are upgradeable and generally easy to use, more people are installing them in their home VOIP set-ups as well, making a gateway a component part to the entire VOIP phone syste