What Is an Analog Telephone Adapter?

An analog phone adapter is a device that connects a standard phone to a computer or network so that users can make phone calls over the network.

Analog phone adapter

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An analog phone adapter is a device that connects a standard phone to a computer or network so that users can make phone calls over the network.

Analog telephone adapter (ATA). Long-distance telephone calls on the network are much cheaper than calls from traditional telephone systems. Analog phone adapters are much cheaper than dedicated VoIP phones that connect directly to a computer's universal serial interface (USB).

Whether or not an Internet phone is cheaper than a traditional phone depends on a number of factors, including fees from various service providers and equipment costs. Skype, an Internet telephony service provider, offers free local calls and calls to its members, and cheap long-distance calls for members.

There are many types of analog phone adapters. All analog telephone adapters (ATA) establish a connection between the telephone and the computer or network; some perform analog-to-digital conversion and connect directly to the VoIP server, others use software to connect.

The simplest analog phone adapter has one or more RJ-11 jacks. It plugs a phone (or fax machine) into a USB connector, which is then plugged into a user's computer, laptop, or handheld device. This analog phone adapter is often used with software (usually a software phone program). The software acts as an intermediary for phones and VoIP servers, digitizing voice data so that it can be transmitted over the Internet.

In an enterprise, an analog phone adapter usually has many phone jacks and is connected to a network card, switch, or LAN through an RJ-45 interface. This adapter digitizes the voice signal and uses protocols such as H.323 or Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) to communicate with the VoIP server, so there is no need for a softphone program. An adapter capable of connecting a phone to a local area network is sometimes referred to as a network telephony gateway.

Some VoIP service providers, such as Vonage, provide their customers with analog phone adapters as part of their service packages. ^[1]