Carroll County is in the process of implementing a new voice-over Internet protocol system, a move that the county’s IT provider says will make departmental communication easier and cut costs in the long haul.

The VoIP system, effectively similar to Internet phone providers like Skype, allows for delivery of voice communication over the Internet or other online network, meaning that phone calls would be encrypted on one end and then decrypted on the other, all without using traditional analogue technologies employed in the modern-day telephone.

The system will be unveiled at the new soon-to-be-completed animal control facility and, depending on its early success, it could be expanded to other county departments. Whenever someone at the animal control facility speaks into a VoIP phone, digital audio waves will be transmitted through a router and, because they’ll initially be received on a normal analogue receiver until the system can be expanded to other departments, the waves will be translated into an analogue format for the person listening on the other end. When that person, the one speaking on the normal analogue phone, says something, the waves will be translated to digital so the person on the VoIP phone can understand. Altogether, neither person should notice any change in the conversation, said David Nist, owner of Nistworks Inc., the county’s IT provider.

While the actual quality of county phone calls is unlikely to change, he said, the way in which calls will be handled should change significantly. As a high-tech means of call forwarding, Nist said, the system should make it possible for a variety of numbers to ring to one cell phone, making it easier for animal control workers and other employees who are on the road for most of their day to be reached when they’re out of the office.

What’s more, Nist said, technological trends over recent years suggests that analogue phone conversations will eventually shrink into obsolescence, leaving only VoIP or other similar services.

“We’ve sort of been under the premise that the way that telephones have run over the last 120 years is the best way to get it done, and it’s changed in that the technology to the do the voice over IP has changed so you can’t tell the difference between the two,” Nist said. “It’s where everybody is going, and I expect analogue over the next 20 years to really be gone. It’ll be like the old telephones with the rotary dial. They’re gone now. This is sort of the next evolutionary step.”

VoIP service has a number of features that are simply lacking on traditional phone lines. Aside from streamlining call forwarding, Nist said, the system is also ultimately cheaper because it requires less hardware.

Because calls are billed in terms of date space required — ie, per megabyte, gigabyte etc. — and not per minute, the rate at which conversations are billed is significantly less than would be for a normal phone call.

“It’s cheaper, and I think it’s going to be more effective,” Nist said.