Automatic Redial And Call Forwarding

Automatic redial will allow you to reattempt a connection if the first failed for one reason or another. Connecting with VoIP requires the same type of information as a regular phone call, with the exception that VoIP is using IP addresses and the PSTN call uses phone numbers. Either way, it is a bother to have to continually re-key the same information over and over and this service ends that problem.

Call forwarding, which can be a blessing on those days that you cannot pinpoint exactly where you will be from minute to minute will allow your calls to be sent to VoIP if you are heading back to your office or to switch from VoIP to your cell phone if your are going to have to go mobile for one reason or another.

Caller ID And Conferencing

Caller ID is probably the one feature that most people would pay nearly any amount for. The advantage of being able to choose what calls you answer and when is a huge advantage, especially if you are trying to avoid the timewasters, the annoying prattlers, and of course, the in-laws. In the business world, caller id can give the advantage of being able to refer to a caller by their name right off the bat, which can sometimes give a bit of an edge in this ultra-competitive world.

Teleconferencing with VoIP though, may have a distinct advantage over the same service with the more traditional phone company. When you are using the phone for a teleconferencing call and find that you need information beyond what you already have, you may find yourself having to move to another location to find it. With VoIP teleconferencing, you are right there on your computer and all of the information that you could possibly want or need is right there at your fingertips, just a mouse click away. Many of the voice over Internet services have additional software specifically for teleconferencing usage, something the traditional phone company cannot boast at all.

Integrated Online Services

VoIP offers the distinct advantage over the PSTN by allowing users to access other aspects of Internet service while using their computer based telephone. With the traditional phone, you can both surf and talk if you are lucky enough to have a high speed connection and can multitask or, if you are not as lucky, you can surf than talk if you are stuck with a dial up internet connection.

With your service integrated right into your computer, you can set up file transfers and have video conversations all with from the same computer and Internet connection. You will no longer have to transfer files, then call to make sure that the files were received by the one they were sent to, as it can be done all at one time. Some cell phones do have web capabilities, but because of their small size, they do not have the available memory space to hold very large files and can be unreliable during such applications to begin with. It is safer to trust a phone call made over your Internet connection during file transfers than the other way around.

Advanced Mobile VoIP Technology

Many cell phones have picture taking abilities, and some do some very brief life footage video, but none can offer a multi person video conference conversation as efficiently as the VoIP. For this reason alone, many people are switching over to VoIP, especially for business usage.

And although you will probably be paying some additional charges for these services with voice over Internet IP, it is not likely to be more than what you are paying for comparable services with a PSTN. Your savings with long distance phone calls alone should more than make up for any fees that you would have to pay for additional services.

In the end, you must realize that nothing comes free, and that most things in life include some kind of a tradeoff. With VoIP you get free long distance service over a reliable network with many of the traditional phone company’s perks and benefits. Yes, you do have to pay for them, but you would have to pay for them anyway, and pay for long distance service on top of it!

Telegraphy And Telephony

To speed things up, those who could afford it could send a telegram, but there were problems with those as well. For one thing, they could be pricey for the financially strapped families, and if they lived way out in the woods, they would not get their message until they came to town or a messenger finally managed to find them.

Progress in communication brought the telephone, and suddenly you could hear the voice on the other end of a whole lot of wire and actually talk to them. But, the telephone brought with it a whole slew of new issues to confront. The phone was thought of as frivolous, and a passing fancy by many, and there was no service available to the rural and remote areas of the country. Phones were found in bustling centers of town, and were a community thing- not convenient to pick up and chit chat about the weather.

The Telephone Network

Back in the old days of the phone company, all calls were connected by a living, breathing phone operator who sat in front of a dazzling display of flashing buttons and lights, connecting one call to another with a virtual tangle of wires. As more and more people signed up for phone service, the phone company found that the operator was not as effective- they just could not keep the switchboards moving fast enough. An automated system for connecting and disconnecting thousands upon thousand of phone calls was invented, and the phone company sat back on its heels, raking in money hand over fist. People were wrapped in their clutches, with no escape route in sight.

The telephone company’s network is made up of circuits. Those circuits are open until a call is made, and then closed while in use. During a call, those circuits cannot be used by any other caller, leaving the phone company no choice but to continually add new circuits to keep up with the demand. The more circuits that are needed, the more work the phone company must do to keep them up and running properly, which is more expense for them. Exactly who do you think gets to bear the cost of that additional expense? That’s right, the phone company’s customers.

Computer And Mobile Phones

After a few years, the naysayers realized that the phone was not just a passing fancy, and more and more people started having their own phone installed in the home. Soon, the phone was not only in the majority of homes, many people had more than one phone. But, communication needs still continued to involve and technology continued to grow right along with it. The world soon had the computer and the mobile phone to complement the telephone, and in some cases, replace it. How many people do you know personally that has a cell phone only? The telephone served us all well, but it is now taking a backseat to the other members of the communications team as email, IM and voice over Internet explode onto the scene.

When computers were first developed for personal use, they were huge and bulky affairs and moved so slow they hardly seemed worth it to all but the most techno-crazed fan. As the machines grew smaller, sleeker and faster, their ability to communicate with each other grew. Soon people were emailing and instant messaging each other at the speed of light and loving it. Why bother using an expensive phone call to ask a simple question when you could zip off a quick email and be done with it?

But, the computer was not the only innovation that threatened to knock King Telephone off of his communication throne, and the cellular phone was among the first to chip away at the hold the phone company had on its customers.

Business Advantages of VoIP Service

VoIP is a new technology with boundless new frontiers to explore. The phone company is established, secure and set in their ways. They will only change when they embrace the new technologies and make them their own. Look for major competitive wars to spring up as the older phone companies expand to offer VoIP services while the newer VoIP focused companies work to hold on to the customer base that they have already lured away.

The cost itself may be the first reason that people look into voice over Internet for home or office. Most providers use a flat rate, monthly fee that covers all basic services as well as free long distance, and just like with the phone company, you can pick and choose the extra features that you would like to have, although you will usually pay more for them.

Advancement In VoIP Technology

The technology itself makes routing a phone call far more efficient and therefore, more cost effective. The phone company routes your calls through circuits which open at one end to allow transmission to be sent, and then close until information is sent back. While a call is being made, both ends of this circuit are in use, and therefore closed to other uses. The VoIP system is made up of packets and switches – the packet, which is all of your voice information transformed to digital information, is then sent along a network. The packet is routed through whatever part of the network has the least amount of congestion in it, meaning that the call will not be bogged down or delayed by heavy use of one area of the network.

The quality of service that most people expect from a phone call is just not quite there, although huge strides have been made lately. There are still problems with jitter and latency during calls, some of which are serious enough to be considered unacceptable.

Disadvantages Of VoIP Service

Some VoIP providers are not connected with the existing emergency telephone system, making emergency calls a slightly more difficult proposition. This is one of the many things that is being worked on as the technology improves.

If you are using VoIP however, a power failure can mean a complete loss of service. There is no alternate source of power in the event of an electrical outage. If you are using the PSTN phones and the electric goes out, you are fine, unless your phone is a cordless. An exception to this would be if you are using a laptop and could switch to battery power.

Initial Equipment Investment

VoIP requires one to purchase the necessary equipment to start using VoIP. With the phone company, you order service, and either rent one of their phones or pick up one at the local big box retailer and be done with it. With VoIP, you need more than just a phone: you need a computer and the right type of phone for the service you will be using, the actual service itself and the software. If you never make a single long distance phone call, how will you recoup that cost with free service?

Before you sign up for the service, know exactly what your initial costs will be and how that will translate into savings for you. Do not sign up for a lengthy contract until you are sure that VoIP is right for you. If you are looking into this fast growing technology for your business, then make sure that you know all of the drawbacks as well as the advantages and make plans for how to deal with them. Will you have an alternate method of communication in place for days when broadband service is out for one reason or another? Will you be able to keep pace if the power goes off? How high of a standard do you have for quality of service?

Reliability Of VoIP Company

If you are worried about the change to VoIP for your business, consider trying a voice over Internet host at first, but that can be problematic as well. Because the technology is changing so fast, these host companies are springing up seemingly overnight, leaving you at risk of trusting your company and telecommunication needs to someone who may or may not have the same business ethic that you, yourself do. Host companies can start up and falter in the blink of an eye, so make sure that you proceed with the utmost caution.

Consider whether the tradeoff between quality is worth the savings that you can garner from using VoIP, or if you would rather save your companies money in another part of the operation. If you are doing a lot of calls overseas to other businesses, then it may be well worth it, but if all of your calls are your own local customers, then you might be wiser to wait for higher quality VoIP services.

And finally, consider whether you are changing for all of the right reasons. Are you making the move to voice over internet for the business and savings, or for the prestige and acclaim of being one of the first in on the ground floor of an about to explode technology? Although it is important to stay on top of the game in business, you do not want to sacrifice excellent customer care and service merely to be a trendsetter. There must be a way to do both for businesses to succeed.

Same Features With Great Bonus

If you are teleconferencing a call between three satellite offices, and you need some additional information, you will either have to walk away from your desk, or log onto your computer while trying to maintain a conversation. With VoIP, you are already there at your desk, with your computer in use, so all of the information that you could possibly need is right there at your fingertips.

Just as you can with the traditional phone companies, you can pick and choose which features are beneficial to you and which you can do without to keep your pricing low. Many VoIP providers work with flat rates, so it may not be so much a matter of keeping prices low by minimizing services, although many do charge additional fees for these types of services.

VoIP For Telemarketing And Call Centre

VoIP can be found in many telemarketing uses now, and is a common feature in the freelance call center operation. Many companies are looking to move telecommunications to other locations either, off premises within the same country, or outside of the country where labor can be found for much lower costs. Outsourcing jobs, to foreign representatives can be very cost effective, but can cost the company in loyalty and repeat customers.

A better option can be VoIP hosting services which maintains and operates their telecommunications using VoIP much like a web hosting company would do for a website. Although both options are at the discretion of the company themselves, the image that is presented by outsourcing to foreign lands may hurt credibility in the long run.

VoIP Hosting

VoIP hosting can keep costs low, as the price of initial equipment and startup is not a factor, and the host will keep up all of the required maintenance and upgrades as they become necessary. All hiring and training of employees that work the call center are also taking care of by the host service, another savings of both time and money for the savvy business.

Although they sound almost magical, it is important to keep in mind when considering hiring a VoIP hosting service that VoIP is a relatively new technology. There are some kinks that need to be worked out of the system, so expect and prepare for any kind of malfunction, foul up or snafu that you could imagine. Always have a Plan B.

Outsourcing To A VoIP Company

Since VoIP is relatively new as a technology, the hosting service industry is even newer. Make sure that you know who you are dealing with, and research the track record of the business owner. Does this person have a long history of starting and running successful businesses, or does it look like they may flit from technology to technology, leaving ill feelings and huge debts in their wake? Make sure that you know whom you are dealing with, and take full names from everyone that you speak with. If they will not give you their name or worse you know for a fact that the name they have given in a pseudonym, then walk away.

Know that one of the disadvantages of VoIP can be the lack of an alternate power source in case of electrical failure. Ask if your hosting company has a way of handling this, especially if they are located in an area known for frequent power outages.

Real Business Telecommunication

In traditional business model, a staff such as Jim works five days of the week, Monday through Friday, while Tim takes several days off. Because Tim is not there on Tuesday, Jim must re-explain everything to Tim’s replacement, Marc, which takes longer than ten minutes. In fact, it takes nearly fifteen minutes at a cost of fifteen dollars. Again, Jim must call Marc repeatedly, not only to change or firm up details with the first order, but for questions with a whole new days work. By the end of Tuesday, the company has spent over one hundred dollars at the desk of one employee.

If this company has ten employees who are all doing roughly the same thing at their own desks, we are looking at a cost of over one thousand dollars for telecommunications alone. Of course, some of these orders and confirmations could have been done over the Internet with email, but that slows the process down as you wait for responses. Some people do not sit at their desk for the majority of the day, especially in very active offices, so not only do you wait for a response; you often have to wait for your initial email to be read in the first place.

VoIP Savings For Business

The company needs a better way to communicate and still remain competitive and here is where VoIP can save the day. If the company purchases the ATA (analog telephone adaptors) for their ten employees, as well as downloading the correct software they can start making all of these phone calls to Tokyo or wherever in the world for free, saving themselves that one thousand dollars. The company could then funnel that money back into the business or give the ten employees all one hundred dollar bonuses.

Cost Savings On Cell Phones

When they were first revolutionized for widespread use, it looked to the casual observer that the cell phone industry was going to doom the traditional landline based phone companies. While it is true that many people have cut the cord so to speak, others are stuck in dead zones or worse, on the fringes of two competing cell companies’ reaches. Getting a cell phone requires reading and worse, understanding a cell phone plan or using pay as you go. Cell phone plans are unnecessarily difficult to comprehend, and even if you do manage to read through it, there are bound to be details that you miss, which can be very costly to you in the long run. There is also the issue with credit worthiness to get a cell phone, leaving more and more people stuck with the prepaid, or pay as you go option.

Many companies do issue cell phones for their employees, but more and more of them are using the prepaid phones to keep their costs low. There are so many restrictions and rules that the cell phone may not be a smart idea as far as money goes, and there are often issues beyond finances to consider. For instance, what kind of reliability does this service provider give? Will there be places in your town, or even in the building where phones just do not sound right, or worse, end up dropped? Do you really want to risk a high pressure negotiation to your pretty pink cell phone with the Waltzing Matilda ring-tone?

VoIP Cost Saving Model

Even if the initial cost of the ATA or other VoIP equipment is equal to the one thousand dollars originally spent, it would only take a week of free long distance calls for the company to see a steady return on that single investment. To think of the savings on a grander scale think this way: There are 52 weeks in a year. At a cost of $1000 per week, telecommunications costs this company $52,000. A company that is spending that on calls alone had better be raking it in with both fists to stay afloat. Now, that same company spends $1000 to install VoIP equipment and download the software and begins using it that first week. In this equation, the business walks away with a profit of over $50,000 in savings for communication.

Cell phones are great for those employees that are out in the field or in the nearby area and for emergencies. But, they are not reliable enough to replace business lines nor are they economical enough to keep a company on pace to make its projected profit margin for the year. The very fact of their general unpredictable leaves them near the bottom of the list of choices for business uses, but if they are in fact prepaid they may serve as an excellent complement to other parts of the telecommunications chain.

Business Cost Savings

Will they slash employee paychecks to stay ahead of the game? Well, they could, but how long would they keep those loyal employees if they did? Lay-offs and cut backs only breed ill-will for the company, so most will do everything that they can to avoid having to do so. Cutting the number of employees will also slow down or hamper customer service, another problem that is likely to lead to lower revenues for the company as they lose repeat customers. The customer must be satisfied, the employees must be kept loyal and productive while all the while the company ends its fiscal year with a profit. The tightrope is thinner than it has been in years, and the balancing act more precarious.

Tele-computing For Business

There are no companies that are wholly self-contained, so everyone will have to have some kind of contact with an outside source. It is great when that source is right next door and you only have to pop your head out the window to shout to get what you need, but when that outside source is half the world away, what do you do? In the old days, the company would make expensive, static-filled phone calls to the overseas company that provided their what-its and other needs.

The cost of telephone calls back and forth would eat up the monthly profits for the companies, great and small and soon they were crying out for a new and better way to keep their companies moving along. Soon they found themselves looking at computer screens, sending emails and instant messages back and forth, but there were the occasional problems with those as well.

Low Cost Communication For Business

Thankfully, technology is moving ever forward, and the world is on the brink of an all new method of communications. Voice over Internet or VoIP, works with a regular broadband internet connection and allows users to make and receive high quality, low cost phone calls, often with the same or superior features of the traditional phone company. Companies save the cost of the long distance calls, and can funnel that money into different areas of the business while maintaining the same level of communication with their contacts, even those half the world away. It does not matter who they are calling or how far away they are, the call will go through just the same as any other, and no one need be the wiser.

Business VoIP Implementations

Connection is a simple and quick matter; usually no more than five minutes and you are ready to start making phone calls. Training employees to use VoIP should be an equally simple matter because making the calls with this new technology is no more difficult than making any other type. There is no huge investment in equipment needed, and in most cases all of the necessary software is free or very low cost.

There are some subtle differences in the way that the phone calls are routed between the traditional phone company that is a public switched telephone network (PSTN) and voice over Internet that uses packet switching technology, but those have no effect on quality of service or ease of use.

Softphone Jitter And Quality

Because the technology is relatively new, problems can be expected but improvements are always in the works. Jitter, which is a brief interruption of service which can usually be detected by the parties as a brief hiccup in conversation, and can be lessened by jitter buffers. Poor quality of service is bad enough for the average consumer, but for the business owner can make voice over IP unacceptable for their applications.

As the technology grows and becomes more widely available, quality of service will be forced to take a forefront. The service providers will have to keep on top of every detail of call quality to keep their customers happy, especially as more and more companies vie for them. New systems for routing calls will improve quality of service, as will new and updated equipment. Providers may lure consumers in with low prices, but they will not keep them with low quality of service. No one will put up with shoddy service, even if it is free.

Softphone Security And Quality

The first step in improving VoIP call quality needs to be improving the transfer of packets to reduce jitter. The providers must find a way to increase safety, security and privacy for VoIP calls, including added encryption and virus detectors. Right now the systems are open for attacks from hackers who seek to get our personal information and destroy our computers. Quality of service must provide inherent safety of service as well, especially as more and more people use the system.

Increasing the number of people on a network can cause problems, and the service providers must be ready for that beforehand. The traditional phone companies ran into trouble when they could not keep up with demands, and the voice over IP providers would also do well to learn from their mistakes.

Communication Was Expensive

Then along came cell phones and the phone companies started getting a little antsy. They paid millions for elaborate ad campaigns that disregarded the cell phone as little more than a passing fancy. They were convinced that there would never come a day when people would do away with their landlines. In the markets with really solid cell phone service, ask around and see how many people still pay for traditional phone service.

VoIP has been around for awhile, and it is steadily eating into the phone companies remaining customers. Because it is so efficient as a network, the cost of calls can be kept low and beneficial to the customers. Low cost is only one of the advantages of using VoIP, both for family and business use.

Low Cost VoIP

VoIP takes great advantage of the internet and the concept of packet switching. PSTN calls are made with circuits that have to open or close during a call. The more customers on the network, the more circuits are needed. With packet switching, the information, in this case, digital data is gathered into bundles and then sent along the broadband connection to the correct IP address. The packets can travel along, finding the right pathway, the path with the least amount of congestion. Because the packets can travel this way, there is less need for more networks, which again, reduces the required costs and keeps prices low.

Most people already have a home computer, and as long as they have a high speed Internet connection, they are eligible to take advantage of VoIP and all of its remarkable benefits. Of course, some of the savings may be eliminated, as more and more traditional phone companies rush to get their share of the voice over IP pie, but for now in many cases, long distance service is free to the consumer.

Mobile Number Portability

Thanks to an agreement with the mobile phone companies, customers were allowed to choose to take their phone number with them if they so chose. Mobile number portability (MNP) can be convenient for the customer, but not so great for the network providers. MNP can also cause some issues with VoIP calls as well.

Competition looks to be fierce as more and more traditional phone companies start to look into providing VoIP services. The more competition there is, the better the service must be. There is no way to improve on free unless the providers start paying their customers and how long could they stay in business doing that? Because they cannot compete with price, they must then compete with quality service instead.

Number Portability With Portable Softphone

VoIP is a Least Cost Routing (LCR) system, which as its name implies indicates that the call will be routed along the least expensive network. At one point, LCR networks only needed the prefix of a number to route a call, but that is no longer the case. Now, the networks will need a full number or IP address to route a call, especially if it is a mobile to VoIP call. Although it sounds complex, the process moves remarkably fast and the caller will probably not even notice a delay.

Along with being a LCR system, VoIP providers must also make sure that they are a quality system as well. Even if a company provides a service for free, they will not keep customers if the quality is not there.

Broadband Internet Backbone

One of the most important parts of VoIP is of course, the most obvious: the broadband internet connection. Using broadband rather than traditional phone circuitry leads to a far more efficient, cost effective network with the savings passed on to the consumer. Audio signals are turned into digital data and then sent to the correct IP address, just the same as a phone number directs a call in the PSTN.

The Hardware Phone Set

VoIP requires more than a computer and high-speed connection, of course. You will also need a phone to use during your calls and luckily you can choose between one of three options. The ATA or analog telephone adaptor allows you to keep the old phone that you are already familiar with and still get the low cost long distance calling that you seek from VoIP. Some providers are using the ATA as a lure to get customers to buy bundled services and are provided free of charge. The ATA is fairly simple to install and to use .

The second option is the IP phone, which again looks like an ordinary phone, the only difference here is the type of connection that the phone has. Instead of the traditional phone hook up, the IP phone has an Ethernet connection which connects directly to the router. The IP phone comes with the needed software in most cases, allowing users to make calls from any hotspot.

The Softphone Option

The third option is computer to computer calling, which is by far the easiest way to use VoIP. With the right type of software and some additional equipment, you could be making calls for nothing more than the cost of your monthly ISP fee. For this option you need a sound card, a microphone and speakers- the latter two sometimes come preinstalled in many newer computers.

VoIP services offer many of the same features that your old fashioned phone company does, and like them, will often charge additional fees for using them. And while VoIP sounds like a dream come true, there are a few drawbacks to consider before making the leap. For one thing, there is no form of backup power. If you are without electricity, you are without VoIP as well. Some systems are not connected to the 9-1-1 system, although that is a bug that is being worked on diligently. Consider the tradeoffs and then make your decision carefully. We all communicate daily; shouldn’t we be paying less to do it?