subject: Advantages To Voip [print this page] In this article I will be explaining the reasons why I (and many of my professional colleagues) feel that VoIP, or Voice over Internet Protocol, is a better choice for telecommunications service than the traditional copper lines. I will cover issues that range from long distance calling to features included with the service. Remember that everyone has their own opinion and in no way is this intended blast traditional phone service providers. I am merely offering an option to traditional phone services, and I feel that this newer technology has a distinct advantage over older technology due to the simple fact that it was designed with the intention to remove the problems associated with traditional phone services.
With that being established, let's move on. We will start with the advantage that walks and talks... MONEY! Not only does VoIP have more features than that of your traditional phone service providers, but it is much more cost effective. First off, long distance calling with VoIP service is free. Most people tell me, "Well, I just use my cell phone for long distance calling.". Well do you have any idea why your cell phone has free long distance??? Because cell phone companies use VoIP to relay your cell phone calls. What happens when you make a call is that your signal is sent from your phone in the form of radio waves to the nearest tower (by the way, this is where most of your calls are lost, is in the air waves). Once it reaches that tower it is then transferred or relayed to a main tower which relays your signal to a server that decodes the message from radio signals to voice then into voice data. This voice data is then sent from the "your" server to nearest server to your recipients cell phone. It is then transferred back to voice from voice data then into radio signals where it is sent out to a main tower (via radio waves) and transferred to the tower closest to them, and finally transferred to their cell phone! Whew!! Sounds like a long process, but in total it take only fractions of a second for all of this to occur. The reason it is free for VoIP to travel distances as opposed to traditional phone service, is that there are no switches for the signal to travel through. By transferring voice over the internet, it does not matter where it travels to or how far, long distance calling has no extra charges. Think of it as an email, you do not get charged additional fees to email someone in Japan, as opposed to two blocks away. This is how your voice is carried over the internet, just like an email.
Another distict advantage is that most VoIP providers will include anywhere from 17-20 standard features for "no additional charge". What's funny about this is that VoIP is so inexpensive to run, the service providers usually throw this in for "free", but this is mostly what you are paying for. The voice data transfer programs and equipment are inexpensive as is the actual cost of running voice over the internet, so to make it seem like such a good deal that you can't pass it up, they throw in all these features for "free". Well, it's not actually free, but because the programs can be ranover the internet on servers, and in some cases, on virtual servers, it is much cheaper than what the traditional phone companies can provide it for.
A really unique advantage to VoIP is that it makes the cost of PBX systems virtually nothing! PBX phones and systems are the systems that provide auto attendant, customizable music on hold, conference calling, call block, extension level dialing, extension level voicemail, after hours auto attendant, time stamp calling, recorded calls with time stamp, and many other features. These systems normally range from $10,000 for a small business to upwards of $30,000 for medium sized businesses, up to as high as you can imagine for corporate businesses. There are only a few VoIP providers that offer hosted PBX systems, but ours is one of them. For a mere $18 per month per phone, the business can have the use of PBX phones and functions. Because the voice is ran over the internet, a business can have what is called a hosted PBX system. This is much like web hosting in the fact that the provider has the system on a central server, and the company can have access to that information. So instead of the company having to buy the $30,000 PBX system, the provider does, and can then provide it to multiple businesses. Another advantage to this is that the company is leasing the phones and the system, so if anything happens to the phone it is replaced for free. Also, it would normally cost in the thousands to have your PBX systems upgraded every few years with the latest features. These features are upgraded for free throught the provider as soon as they are available. This not only cuts down the cost of the initial purchase, but the maintanence costs as well.
Another distict advantage unique to VoIP is that your phone and it's number are portable. Because your phone is really a computer with an IP address, you can take it anywhere with you, plug into the internet, and if someone calls that number, that phone will ring wherever it is. This will allow you to carry the PBX functions with you as well. Also, if someone from the office dials your extension and you took the phone home with you for the day to work out of the house, then your phone will ring and that person from office will be on the opposite end. This allows you to do business wherever you are. This is perfect for construction companies that have hard lines at their build sites. They have a handfull of extensions that are always availble, and when they have to go to a new site, they hook up the internet first, then take the phones out and plug them into the internet. This way that crew always has the same number at every site they go to.
Another advantage that is overlooked because of how unreliable it was in its infancy, is how reliable VoIP is now. Now this really needs to be clarified, VoIP connections are only as reliable as the internet connection that they are connected to. However, the most reliable connections at this moment are T1 lines. These are internet lines that come with a service level agreement (or SLA) guarenteeing that the T1 provided will be up 99% of the time, and if they are not, then the customer does not pay for that line that month. T1s are more expensive because of their SLA that comes with it, but the companies that tell us that cost of the lines are not as important as them being available will sign up for T1s 100% of the time. T1s have priority over every other line that the phone company services because the SLAs that are purchased with these lines. If you run VoIP over T1 lines, then this is the single most reliable form of phone service that anyone can purchase.
These are some of the main advantages that VoIP provides a customer over traditional lines, and within the near future I will be writing another article with some of the other advantages and features VoIP offers, so stay tuned.
