When you place a standard telephone call, connections must made along the way between both telephones. Depending upon whether the person receiving the call is next door or in a faraway land, the price of the call is based on the number of connections and telephone companies' pricing.

If on one end of the call someone is using a VoIP telephone, the connection between the VoIP caller and the standard telephone caller can only be achieved via a gateway: For example, blueSIP.

The ideal solution would be to have numerous gateways distributed throughout the world (individual SIP provider working together, sharing networks). Then complete VoIP calls would be carried via the internet with connection occurring only at the start and end locations.

VoIP provides an attractive alternative to standard telephony, simplifying the communication paths and at the same time reducing costs.