subject: Some Advantages Of Broadband Phones [print this page] Broadband phones are increasingly gaining popularity all over the world. Starting from 2004 businesses and other big organisations prefer broadband Internet telephony over more traditional methods of communication more and more. It may be interesting to know why.
Broadband phones unlike regular phones use broadband Internet connections. Because of that these phones can be used to make video calls, transfer multimedia or make conference calls for a big number of people in addition to regular calling and messaging. Nevertheless, despite not using regular copper-wired telephone lines, all newly-installed broadband phones usually get a standard number so it is possible to make calls on it from any landline or cell phone.
Broadband phones may be an especially good option when a large phone network is needed. One of their major benefits is that they don't need a centralised private branch exchange server which is usually required when connecting regular phones in a large company. Moreover, the employees of the same company generally call each other for free using a broadband connection thus reducing the organisation's end-of-the-month telephone bill. International and landline calls are generally cheaper as well. Moreover, additional options like call forwarding, automatic redial, interactive voice response that traditional telephone companies generally charge for are available either for free or for a relatively small price.
Besides that, the installation of broadband phones by a small organisation won't lead to the necessity of installing a new broadband Internet line. These phones generally use only a small part of the Internet connection so the existing network is likely to be perfect for connecting up to 7 or 8 people. In such a manner the investment costs become much smaller than they could have been when installing a regular telephone line. Any additional user can be added in minutes providing that this user already owns a broadband phone handset, while it is quite possible that adding a regular phone user will be quite time-consuming.
Another major advantage of installing broadband phones in an office is the number of features they offer. Modern phones are likely to help the company's employees to use their working day in the most efficient way. For example, the do not disturb feature may be used by somebody in the process of performing a very important task. Conference calling and multiple-user calling can be used instead of gathering people for time-consuming office meetings. The night mode can automatically transfer all the night calls to the office phones to an automatic voice-mail system.
Other benefits include better security as the Internet calls are generally performed using standardised protocols, which are likely to help keeping any person's conversation private. There is no direct statistics showing that broadband phones are much safer than traditional phones, but some companies offer a firewall software whose sole responsibility is to guard the broadband phone calls.
All of the before-mentioned facts lead to an increasing usage of broadband phones all over the United Kingdom. Even the governmental structures join in. In an effort to cut the taxpayers' money spending both the Department for International Development and the Foreign Commonwealth Office have started to exchange words using Internet telephony. High savings on phone calls are expected, so broadband phones are almost certain to help businesses too.
