VoIP for Businesses: The Basics

VoIP is an acronym for “voice over Internet protocol,” and it offers businesses a new, reliable and cost-effective way to manage their telecommunications needs. Rather than relying on traditional land lines or cell phone service, VoIP technologies allow you to make and receive calls online. Companies that offer VoIP services typically have special packages for businesses, with prices that tend to be far lower than those charged by traditional telecom providers.

There are four major technologies you can use to take advantage of VoIP calling:

• Softphones. Skype is the best-known example of a “software phone,” which essentially harnesses your computer’s built-in technology to allow for audio or video interfacing.
• IP-PBX. “Public branch exchange” or PBX technologies facilitate VoIP calling by operating in tandem with traditional switchboard-based land line infrastructure.
• IP telephone. This type of telephone looks and functions like a regular land line, but is connected to the Internet instead of a telecom network.
• Mobile softphones. You can download apps to smartphones which allow users to make and receive calls over VoIP networks instead of regular cell phone networks.

Before you start shopping for business VoIP plans, it’s a good idea to have a solid working understanding of the technology. In essence, VoIP technology converts audio input into digital information, which is then transmitted across the Internet to the receiving party, where it is turned back into an audio signal. VoIP is functionally identical to traditional landline telephone technology, but with far less infrastructure involved, it costs much less. When you sign up with a VoIP provider, a service representative will walk you through the entire conversion process, from the installation of IP telephones (or whatever technology you prefer) to the porting of your company telephone number(s) to the VoIP service provider.

While VoIP technologies have been around for a while, it is only fairly recently that bandwidth and data transmission speeds have been able to meet the needs of business customers. Now, if you have a high-speed Internet connection with adequate bandwidth, you too can take advantage of VoIP technologies and all of its cost-cutting advantages.