VoIP in business
What is VoIP and how does it work?
What is VoIP?
Voice over Internet Protocol or Voice over IP is digital technology that facilitates Internet voice communication.
Simply put, VoIP takes audio data, like a caller’s voice, and breaks it down into small data packets.
Those packets are transmitted over the internet and then reconverted into the original audio data to replicate an analogue phone call.
The growth of business VoIP
In recent years, the popularity of VoIP has surged as business leaders recognized its benefits and advantages over traditional business phone services.
As a result, most businesses now use VoIP phone systems. In fact, it’s likely not too much of a stretch to claim that VoIP has replaced PSTN to become the business telephony standard.
Is VoIP call quality as good as PSTN?
VoIP critics used to argue that VoIP call quality was inferior to PSTN. However, this hasn’t been true for a long time.
Modern business Voice over IP providers offer significantly improved voice call quality, often eclipsing PSTN standards.
RingCentral offers HD voice across all our VoIP calling plans, including on our unified apps for laptops and mobile devices, as well as IP desk phones.
Why choose Voice over IP business solutions?
How does VoIP work for business? Well, VoIP in business means you can choose the types of numbers you need. For example, if you expect your business to grow, a toll-free national number provides wide exposure. Whereas, a local number might provide you with the right connection to a specific community, even if you’re based elsewhere.
In addition, VoIP technology vastly improves audio and video conference applications.
Lastly, using VoIP in business means you can operate your phone service from anywhere with an internet connection. So, with VoIP, you can connect your numbers to the devices you need—a cell phone, a home landline, or even a laptop computer.
Thanks to cloud and VoIP technology, the idea of business phone systems limited to a single location will soon be a thing of the past.
What are the advantages of VoIP for business?
Until recently, businesses spent a lot of money to host servers and other telephony infrastructure on their own premises. The arrival of cloud technology fundamentally transformed business telecommunications.
The modern VoIP phone system is hosted in the cloud, with maintenance, upgrades, and more handled by business telephone system providers. That takes a lot of the stress away from your business, and delivers a range of further advantages, too:
What are the advantages of VoIP for business?
Until recently, businesses spent a lot of money to host servers and other telephony infrastructure on their own premises. The arrival of cloud technology fundamentally transformed business telecommunications.
The modern VoIP phone system is hosted in the cloud, with maintenance, upgrades, and more handled by business telephone system providers. That takes a lot of the stress away from your business, and delivers a range of further advantages, too:
Cut costs
A VoIP phone system usually costs less to run than services offered by traditional phone carriers. Long-distance calls are often charged the same as local calls and international calls made using VoIP usually boast lower international call rates.
Additionally, VoIP plans usually offer, as standard, many features traditional phone plans charge for, such as call forwarding, call screening, and caller ID.
Grow your business more easily
With VoIP, you can easily add new phone numbers and lines with just a few clicks from an online account dashboard. That’s compared to a traditional phone service which typically requires new cables and hardware to be installed.
The same principles apply to expanding your VoIP business telephone service across widely dispersed office locations. Instead of installing and setting up separate phone systems at each location, you can easily bring your offices around the world together under one telecommunications system without having to install any hardware.
Empower remote and hybrid work
VoIP provides businesses more flexibility in terms of where and when their employees work. Aside from uniting multiple locations under one system, the cloud-based solution also allows organizations to implement operational options that were not available when they were using traditional landlines and on-premise systems.
This includes remote working and other work-away-from-office setups. With VoIP, they are still able to use official business phone numbers for calling without having to use cellular minutes. They can even use other communication tools like video conferencing to stay connected with the company if their provider’s service is robust enough.
Some VoIP things to remember
The best Voice over Internet Protocol phone systems clearly deliver an abundance of benefits. However, you should also remember a couple of things.
VoIP in business depends on your Internet connection
The quality of your VoIP experience will depend on your internet connection. A slow and unstable connection may mean unreliable VoIP calls, and no internet means no VoIP calls.
The solution is simple: make sure you’ve got a reliable internet service. In some cases, internet providers run a dedicated line solely for virtual phone systems. You should also use QoS (Quality of Service) routers that you can set to prioritize VoIP transmissions over other IP transmissions.
If you use VoIP, you may need to set up e911
Some emergency responders, like the police and fire department, use the physical location of traditional landlines to help find your location during an emergency. As VoIP systems aren’t tied to one location, 911 calls using this technology can result in responders being sent to the wrong address.
However, Enhanced 911 (or e911) supports wireless users. RingCentral allows users to update customers’ e911 emergency addresses, which in turn means you can update address information assigned to a VoIP line. Emergency responders can then use this information to trace the call.
VoIP in business is the forward-thinking choice
By now, it should be obvious why VoIP in business is ever more popular with both large and small organizations. Now it’s time for you to find the right VoIP provider for your company.
Try a RingCentral demo for free, and see if it’s a good fit.