It’s an acronym that stands for Voice over Internet Protocol, also known as IP telephony. VoIP is simply a telephone service that makes and receives calls via your internet connection. In addition it provides more internet communication options and functionality to your organization to utilize.
When it was first introduced in the 1990s, VoIP was a revolutionary new concept. But like all technology there are those who wish to profit from this industry and use it for their own gain. VoIP providers have popped up everywhere offering what appears to be a perfect solution for all of your phone needs. As a result of the widespread popularity of VoIP, companies are now bundling a variety of different features together under one roof. This is called a hosted PBX. The premise behind this is that all telephone service providers are situated within the same system.
There are several benefits to having a hosted PBX. First, it eliminates the need for you to purchase or manage your own hardware. It can also reduce overall costs of ownership since there is only one central switch that connects all of your internal phone systems. Another advantage is that if your system crashes, it doesn’t impact the rest of the network.
One of the first things you may notice when setting up a hosted VoIP system is that everything is managed from a central location. All your phone numbers are already deactivated, so there’s no need to store them on paper lists or anything else. The reason behind this is that all communications are done with software on your computer. You can also integrate all your systems together to create one seamless communication platform.
Another feature available with some systems is VoIP provisioning.
Providing your network with this feature ensures that any new clients you get in the future will be able to connect to your system. Basically, it allows existing clients to “auto-join” your network. This can really cut down on your overall phone volume by not encouraging new customers to try and take advantage of your services. It can also help you monitor who is making calls so that you can address complaints quickly.
Another useful feature is automatic gateway detection. Automatic gateways are essentially digital circuits that link networks. This lets you accept calls from people on any network as long as you have their IP addresses and ports. This feature allows you to accept calls from people who are already connected to your network. It will do this without actually connecting them to your IP number or port.
One of the largest factors that many people tend to forget about with VoIP is reliability.
To ensure that your phone continues to work even when you’re not using it is vital. Many VoIP providers have very robust systems that test for reliability regularly. You don’t want to sign up for VoIP if you’re not going to be able to place calls when you want to. This is one of the more basic features of a VoIP phone service, but it’s something that you should definitely pay attention to.
Hopefully this short guide has given you a good idea about what features are available, how they work, and why you might need them. Most VoIP providers offer plenty of different features for their services. Take some time to decide which ones are right for you before you decide which VoIP phone service provider you’d like to subscribe to.
Of course, you can always upgrade your current VoIP service any time you choose. When you move to a new plan or if your current plan ends, you can change your hardware as well. Some companies also offer phones that are capable of connecting to the Internet, called Internet Phone Service (IBS). These types of phones will cost more than traditional phones because of the additional features and hardware that are required. Regardless of what type of VoIP phone service you’re subscribing to, you should have no problem changing your hardware or adding IBS features at any time.
The last thing that you need to know is that some VoIP providers are better than others. The best providers in the world all use the same standard in order to allow you to place and receive calls over the same network. Your VoIP provider doesn’t matter much if you can’t connect to their network. In other words, if you can’t connect to their network you’re basically losing out on your VoIP phone service. So, don’t assume that a network that you can connect to is the VoIP network you need to be using.
- So, if you have a VoIP phone but you can’t get it connected to your network, don’t worry.
- You can still make unlimited calls using the same type of phone you already have!
- All you need to do is ensure that your existing phone service doesn’t include any VoIP features and that you can easily add extra services to your plan.