VoIP Phone Service

From LoveToKnow Business

VoIP phone service, or Voice Over Internet Protocol phone service is an evolving technology offering several advantages for small business. Whether you have a one-person home office or operate a call center within a department, you can benefit from this technology. VoIP offers the ability to make free phones calls over the Internet bypassing your local phone company’s long distance charges. While the technology has the potential to completely change the way to do business over the phone, it’s not a completely workable solution as yet. There are some downsides, but as the technology improves, so too will the benefits it offers.

Analog Vrs VoIP Phone Service

Traditional analog systems operate by transmitting a signal from location to location, utilizing switching centers powered and maintained by a local phone company. Should power fail at your location, your phones will still work, because your phone company maintains its own power generators, providing power to the system.

VoIP systems convert analog phones signals, compress and transmit them digitally through an Internet connection using manufacturer OEM software. The receiving end decodes the signal and presents it in voice quality that’s generally pretty good. The process is incredibly fast, offering quality testing rates of 64,000 times per second. VoIP systems are subject to Internet Service Provider (ISP) or broadband provider failures and won’t work if power in your location goes down.

VoIP Call Protocols

There are three ways to make a call:

ATA - Easy and simple to use. Uses an ATA or Analog Telephone Adaptor that allows a standard phone connected to your computer or Internet connection used with a VoIP provider. The ATA converts the analog phone signal into a digital format transmitted over the Internet. ATAs are plugged into phone jacks just like a regular phone, but some software configuration may be necessary.

IP Phones - These look just like regular phones but use an RJ-45 Ethernet connectors and have resident hardware and software to connect directly to a router for making calls.

Computer-to-computer This is the most attractive aspect of VoIP technology because it eliminates charges for long-distance calls. To hook up, you’ll need a computer microphone, computer speakers, a computer with a sound card and a fast Internet connection provided by DSL or a cable company. All you pay for is your monthly ISP fee.

VoIP Provides Flexibility

With VoIP, you can make a call from anywhere you have access to broadband connectivity, a big advantage for business travelers who can take VoIP phones or ATAs on trips and have access to their office phones by using VoIP service with a desktop or laptop. All you require is a headset and microphone combination to place calls from your PC worldwide.

Most VoIP vendors offer standard features for free that regular phone companies charge for, including called ID, call waiting, call transfer, repeat dial, return call and three-way calling. Others offer call forwarding, calls sent directly to voicemail, caller busy signals and announcement “not in service” messages. You can check voicemail or attach messages to e-mails sent to your computer or handheld device.

Pricing Information

Most VoIP phone service vendors offer structured rate plans that charge by the minute billing similar to cell phone plans for $30 a month. Unlimited plans run about $79.

Don’t want to pay for it? Then try free VoIP.

VoIP Test

Brix Network System Test offers a free test of your existing phone systems to see if it can handle Voip .

VoIP Phone Service Downsides

*Frequent downtime. While normal switched business phones work most of the time, computers and ISPs are somewhat less reliable. ISPs frequently go down, sometimes for minutes or days. Relying upon a phone system to operate your business based on the Internet has its hazards.

*Dependence upon commercial electrical power. VoIP systems depend upon electrical power to operate unlike commercial office phone systems powered by a central office. This can be easily overcome by installing a UPS as a backup power source.

*Lacks emergency 911 calls These don’t work well because there are few systems in place that can link an IP address to a VoIP phone location. If you have trouble on the road, you’ll need to know your exact location so the 911 operator can route nearby police departments to you. Although this situation is improving, installing a GPS locator in your car may be necessary until the problem is fixed.

*Internet connection transmission errors These can affect call quality, distorting, garbling or interrupting calls.

*Lack of PC standards Each PC offers differing specifications and power requirements depending upon the manufacturer. Processor drain can be a challenge when you open a program that suddenly sucks up a lot of operating power, creating call quality drop offs or system crashes.

*Skill levels of computer users Varying skill levels of system users can create a host of problems.