How Does VoIP Phone Service Work?

For years, businesses have been replacing their analog phone lines with VoIP phone service. In its early years, VoIP picked up its own reputation among users and skeptics who touted it as unreliable; however, throughout its history, this new communication technology has grown in popularity and left its mark as a reliable and practical communication solution for businesses of all sizes.

Today, businesses use VoIP features to stay in touch with customers and colleagues, expand their businesses seamlessly, monitor employee performance, and build customer loyalty. By harnessing the power of the cloud, VoIP also offers a degree of flexibility and simplicity that analog users just can’t experience.

While analog phone service keeps communications fixed in one location, VoIP allows you to make and receive your business calls from any device (office, mobile, or soft phone app) or forward them to external sites and extensions.

The flexibility and convenience of this technology is what most users love about business VoIP providers.

Small businesses and entrepreneurs are also able to use VoIP phone service to create the image of a larger company with features like auto attendant and custom prompt menus.

What can you expect from a VoIP phone service?

VoIP takes analog audio signals and converts them into digital data which can be transmitted over the internet. With less bandwidth required to transmit the data, there is less occurrence of jitter which causes that choppy audio and lackluster call quality that drives everyone crazy.

Call quality, cost savings, and easy setup are the main drivers of VoIP’s success but there are several features and capabilities that set this communication technology apart.

These are few of the standard features you can expect when using a VoIP phone service:

  • Call forwarding
  • Voicemail to email
  • Auto attendant, also known as a digital receptionist or cloud receptionist
  • Call continuity
  • Programmable keypads
  • App integration
  • Caller ID display
  • Call blocking
  • Call conferencing
  • Mobile capabilities

VoIP phone service can seem like a drastic change to your communications strategy but if you’re willing to speak with consultants, you will see that it’s actually a simple transition.

A Better Business Communication Solution

Convenient set up

Even with more recent, premise-based business phone systems, set up is cumbersome and expensive compared to a cloud-based phone system. It requires users to connect wires and figure out which line pairs with which extension; most busy business owners usually end up either having to hire someone to install it for them or spend hours on the phone with their phone company.

With VoIP, the time it takes to get up and running is minimal and most VoIP service providers offer support to help you every step of the way. Usually, however, it’s as easy as plugging in your IP phone and letting it initialize to your existing network.

There are no wires or lines to worry about since your service provider takes care of most of the set up before you receive your new equipment. When you use VoIP phone service, your settings come pre-configured to your phone so all you have to do is connect your phone to the correct ports and you’re on your way.

The best part?

Since VoIP is cloud-based, your provider is able to take the maintenance of equipment and servers that help power your communications off your hands by managing their own servers and IT staff for your convenience.

This means any business can enjoy using this technology regardless of the size of their location.

Minimize costs

Businesses see significant savings when they switch from traditional phone service. With older PBX systems, you had to hire an IT staff to maintain the equipment housed in your office, pay for long distance charges, and if you wanted to add a line to your office you had to pay the phone company more for the phone number and installation.

Today’s VoIP technology only requires one-time hardware costs and a monthly subscription based on service plan rates. Long distance calling rates vary among providers but many offer unlimited calling along with competitive international rates.

Easy setup, lower costs, and robust features make VoIP a great solution for business communication. It’s no surprise that VoIP is seeing rapid growth with no signs of slowing down in the coming years.

Social Impacts The Telephone And The Cell Phone Has Had On Society

Mobile telephony is without doubt one of the most explosive developments ever to have taken place in the telecommunications industry. By the end of 1990 there were just 11 million cellular subscribers world-wide; eight years later that figure had jumped to 320 million and is now forecast by the ITU to exceed 550 million by the end of next year. Penetration rates in the Nordic countries were close to 60% by September 1999, led by Finland (63%), Norway (58%), Iceland (56%) and Sweden (53%).

Mobile growth around the world has also been nothing short of astonishing. China posted an 87% combined annual subscriber growth rate from 1995 to 1998, with other major economies like Brazil (82%) and South Africa (67%) not far behind.

For the world’s poorest countries, cellular telephony and wireless local loop systems represent the best chance yet of bringing the power of telecommunications to economically disadvantaged or isolated communities. Cambodia, for example, is one of only half a dozen countries in the world where cellular subscribers already outnumber fixed-line subscribers.

Without doubt, mobile telephony offers enormous advantages and added convenience, greater personal security, and the ability to take advantage of ‘dead’ time to do business on the move. But the picture isn’t all rosy. Like most young technologies, mobile telephony is experiencing its share of teething troubles, including concerns about environmental impact, health and safety, and, of course, the social changes being wrought by a technology which, by making us permanently contactable, is having a profound effect on our interpersonal interaction.

Many cities around the world are becoming blighted by a gaggle of ugly mobile antennae, which spoil once-pleasant views, detract from the authenticity of historical areas, and exacerbate the often already overwhelming presence of intrusive urban infrastructure such as electricity poles, telephone lines, traffic management equipment and signage.

Predictably, environmental complaints have been the loudest in developed countries, where zoning laws, property rights and environmental obligations are often more strictly enforced, and where reliable access to a range of communications services is, in any case, largely taken for granted. Communities in developing countries are, conversely, often so grateful for modern communications infrastructure that they are happy enough (for the moment at least) to turn a blind eye to environmental aesthetics.

In order to avoid problems with environmental groups and local communities — which can be potentially costly in terms of both legal fees and delays in network roll-out — many equipment manufacturers and operators are now working on ways to reduce the environmental impact of cellular antennas.

In the Central Business Districts of large, modern cities, the problem is relatively easily solved by simply integrating a large number of small antennas into the facades of tall buildings. In suburban and semi-rural areas, on the other hand, the large, steel-grey structures needed to support larger cells are harder to hide — yet some operators have nonetheless come up with innovative solutions.

In South Africa, for example, at least one operator has taken to camouflaging GSM towers in tropical palm trees, with surprisingly successful results. Elsewhere, the tall spires of churches and cathedrals are being used to hide antennas, representing a positive solution for both the general public and the religious organizations which suddenly find themselves with profitable antenna-site rental on their hands.

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