What You Need To Know About VoIP
The cord-cutting movement isn’t limited to just cable and Netflix streaming. As Voice over Internet Protocol solutions mature, and high power internet speeds become an unrelated business need, more and more businesses have considered the leap to VoIP telephone solutions.
How VoIP Works For The Consumer
In general, things are pretty simple if you’re open to working with a hosted service. Many of the top VoIP providers we have helped clients with handle all the heavy lifting offsite and out of mind. Often, top companies provide plug-and-play certified phones for the service in question and the majority require no additional on-site hardware.
Alternatively, there is the self-hosted, on-site VoIP system route. This approach requires a bit more work but does come with its advantages. You would need an IP-based private branch exchange, essentially a VoIP version of the typical PBX phone systems (found in most offices), as well as a PSTN gateway device. The PSTN gateway is essentially a translator of analog signals, converting calls to and from digital signals as necessary.
Implementation of VoIP
Depending on the size of your team and the technology infrastructure that you currently have in place, VoIP implementation can vary greatly.
VoIP requires an internet connection. And the more users you have, the more bandwith the system will require you to have for successful VoIP solutions.
Implementation
Depending on the size of your team and the technology infrastructure that you currently have in place, VoIP implementation can vary greatly.
This approach requires an internet connection. And the more users you have, the more bandwith the system will require you to have for successful VoIP solutions.
Advantages
Business VoIP services are significantly less expensive than traditional land line phone services. You have much less hardware to buy or lease; many hosted services require no new hardware investment at all.
In the age of remote and mobile workers, VoIP can provide an extremely inexpensive way to have a “landline.” And, if your team increases, there isn’t some costly infrastructure upgrade. Adding new lines is typically as easy as plugging in a VoIP phone and adding a line (with a hosted option that is).
Disadvantages
VoIP’s most significant drawback is that if your Internet service or your power goes out, so does your VoIP phone service.
Hosted services do have a plan of action should this happen:n the event of a service disruption, all incoming calls will be automatically sent to voicemail or forwarded to another line, like your cell.
Although VoIP voice quality typically rivals that of a landline phone connection, your network (read: internet) quality can seriously affect call quality. If you have a crowded or insufficient network, audio quality can suffer.
