A hand placing a receiver back down on a telephone.

The ins and outs of VOIP

Voice Over IP

What is VoIP (Voice Over IP)? VoIP is a technology that enables one to telephone people via the internet rather than using a regular phone. VoIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol. The phone calls are relatively cheap and sometimes free. You can call people all over the world from your VoIP handset or PC and other people can call you using either VoIP or an ordinary telephone.

How does it work?

Voice Over IP uses analogue audio signals and translates them into a digital language that can be transmitted over the internet. This gives people the ability to make long distance phone calls whenever and wherever they want, bypassing the expense of using the phone.

Providers

There are many VoIP providers out there offering a wide variety of features and pricing plans.

Different strokes for different folks

Voice Over IP is so much more than just for calls, there are different ways of using VoIP and you can choose what’s right for you.

–  ATA – analogue telephone adaptor. A convenient way of using VoIP is to connect a regular phone to your internet connection using one of these adaptors. This adaptor is a digital converter that takes the signal from your phone and converts to digital data.

–  IP Phones – look and feel like a normal phone, but use an Ethernet connector linked to your internet router. Wi-Fi VoIP phones can make calls from any Wi-Fi hotspot.

–  From one computer to another – you need the software, a microphone, a sound card, a couple of speakers, and a connection to the internet. There is often no charge for these calls,regardless of where the person is calling from.

One of the advantages of using VoIP software is that unlike a traditional phone you’re not paying for additional services, such as caller ID, call waiting, call transfer, return call, repeat dial and threeway calling.

Voicemail

You can use voicemail with VoIP, which is another reason for its popularity. You can check messages via the internet rather than using your own phone to do it. And again, the cost for this is minimal in comparison to using a traditional phone.

Voice Over IP – the future?

Increasingly popular, Voice Over IP offers a vast array of feature rich, enterprise class options at very competitive pricing. Voice Over IP systems are almost infinitely scalable, and are ideal for multi-site businesses and employees who work from home, as there is no cost for calls between sites or to transfer calls between sites.

Where do you start?

Bean I.T. can advise you and set up a Voice Over IP system just right for you. We have saved several business clients vast implementation and on-going costs by supplying VoIP telephones and services.

Give us a call to hear how we can save your business money, and significantly enhance your telephony options.