Voice over Internet Protocol or VoIP technology is capable of cutting costs in telecommunications as well as improving the productivity of a business. Is it right for your business? Here is a look at what kinds of benefits VoIP can bring to business.
1 – VoIP service technology quality has really come a long way since its original inception. VoIP may have been extremely limited in the past, but this no longer the case. Today’s Voice over IP services have evolved significantly, allowing for you to make calls and receive calls using not only standard phones but also IP phones, which are rich in unique features. The sound quality has also vastly improved to the point where many companies have abandoned their traditional telephone systems in favor of the VoIP service.
2 – Using VoIP technology is capable of significantly reducing the costs you pay for telecommunications. The operating costs associated with VoIP services are generally quite significantly lower than when you are dealing with a traditional phone company, because the existing phone infrastructure is expensive to maintain and so are the industry regulations. VoIP providers have lower expenses and so they can charge a lot less for the services that they offer.
3 – VoIP services make your entire phone system a lot more flexible. They make it possible for you to do things which simply cannot be possible using traditional telephone technology. For example, they allow you to bring your phone system along with you since you can plug in anywhere where there is a broadband connection such as at someone’s home or in a hotel room. They also allow you to talk using your laptop, and to get your voice mail and your faxes through your e-mail. With this increase in usability, VoIP services make it possible for you to increase the productivity of your business significantly.
One thing is for sure: VoIP technology is continuing to evolve, and there are a number of compelling new features and benefits that are being developed in order to cater to small business. As an example, dramatic increases in mobility are being provided by combining VoIP services with wireless phone and PDA combinations to decrease cell phone charges while boosting functionality and productivity by a great deal. This is just one example of the exciting things that are happening in terms of VoIP service and technology advancements.
It does not matter what size your business is, VoIP technology happens to be a flexible as well as affordable technology that is capable of offering the same level of sophistication in communication tools that enterprise-size companies are using, meaning that VoIP will allow you to stand up against your competitors in terms of communications technology no matter how large or how small your own company happens to be.
By: Amy Nutt
Posts Tagged ‘Telephone Technology’
How Do Businesses Benefit From Having a VOIP System?
March 23rd, 2010Challenges of VOIP in 2007
March 16th, 2010
Today average customer uses Voice over internet protocol (VoIP) which is latest trend in communication industry. The technology is rapidly advancing because all telecommunication product companies are now investing fund to have more improved VoIP products and services.
This year the VOIP market has picked up. Many corporate have started using VoIP and have realized a large savings of 52-percent or more off their phone bills. Use of wireless VoIP helped hospitals to reduce cost of mobile phones. Technologically VoIP is better than pagers and hence it is getting popular in nursing homes and hospitals.
What are the disadvantages of Voice over Internet Protocol?
VoIP is becoming very popular to business houses but it is still not very popular to residential segment. The qualities of VoIP services are inferior to the quality of call in regular telephone technology due to various reasons.
VOIP technology requires a large amount of data to be compressed and transmitted in a packet format, then uncompressed and delivered, all in a relatively small amount of time. This digitization of analog voice signals takes too long and the callers experience either echo or over-talk.
Regular phone calls function with a delay of no more than ten( 10) milliseconds whereas in the case VOIP the delay is up to 400 milliseconds, meaning that the callers won’t hear each other fast enough to make the conversation flow easily. Due to this delay, either callers will hear themselves talking or they will start talking again before they have heard the other person reply. It is true that this delay problem does not occur for each call.
The disadvantages of VOIP are usually acceptable if the callers are using a free service and the calls are for personal in nature. The degradation of voice quality is not acceptable to corporate houses. Apart from delay in voice conversation, IT security network like firewall sometimes failed to route a VOIP call once it is received.
Moreover, if several people use VoIP, bandwidth utilization also increases. Excess use of bandwidth also increases the infrastructural cost.
By: Arindam Chattopadhyaya
How Does VoIP Work? Understanding The Basics
February 28th, 2010
How does VoIP work? Like many people, you may have already heard of VoIP. If you weren’t born in this decade, you may still wonder what it really is. What can VoIP do for you and how exactly is it useful?
Basic Concept
VoIP stands for voice over internet protocol. These days, it is considered an alternative to the typical method of communication involving telephones. Instead of using telephone sets that transmit analog signals, VoIP converts these signals to digital chunks. These are reconverted to audio data when it reaches the recipient. The entire transmission happens over the internet. Although VoIP technology is still far from being preferred and considered standard, some people think that VoIP will eventually replace telephones. It could very well be the next step in communications technology.
The Specifics
So how does VoIP work exactly? VoIP is best understood by understanding typical phone calls first. Regular phone calls make use of what is called circuit switching. When you make a call, your call is passed through a series of switches starting from your phone carrier. Once the other party answers the call, the circuit between the two of you is opened.
Instead of circuit switching VoIP uses packet switching. In this technology, your voice is converted to little packets of data. These packets of data come with their instructions of where they should be sent. They are then sent through a variety of possible routes. They take the nearest router and are passed on to succeeding routers until they reach the recipient. When the packets are received, they are reassembled into a form that can be understood.
Advantages of VoIP
VoIP can offer all the features and benefits of a phone service. Its advantage over traditional phones is that VoIP calls can be made from almost any part of the world. Wherever there is an internet connection, you can have VoIP. The technology can provide cheaper calls than standard telephone technology. This is mainly because VoIP does away with costly circuit switching.
Disadvantages of VoIP
VoIP can be fast, convenient and cheap. It has, however its own disadvantages. These disadvantages are basically due to: (1) the current reliance of present systems on telephone technology; and (2) the shortcomings that plague computer technology.
Telephone Connections – Such services for example as security and cable still rely on telephone connections. Unless the whole country or world agrees to switch to VoIP, these services are likely to stick to their old methods.
This is not the biggest concern though. Since VoIP relies on internet technology, it is also susceptible to the problems that confront the internet and computers. You can therefore expect such problems as viral attacks, crashes and stolen packets.
Now you know the basic answer to how does VoIP work. In reality, this piece of technology does hold a lot of potential. Like everything else, the old ways of communicating over long distances can change. VoIP is the first logical shift that can be taken. It may take a long time however, before VoIP can become a fully integrated and snag free system.
By: Torrie Cantor
