How much do you really know about VoIP Solutions?



VoIP solutions offer a number of key advantages to businesses over legacy phone systems, which are rapidly being phased out at many organizations. There are few disadvantages associated with the VoIP solutions that cloud VoIP providers offer, however, companies still need to be aware of what they are. When it’s time to move, You need to make an informed decision about your new phone services, in the cloud.

Advantages of VoIP 

1. Lower Cost Phone System - VoIP solutions enable inbound and outbound calling over an IP network, instead of your local telecom's PTSN (public switched telephone network). Any business can afford a cloud enterprise phone system, because there’s no set phone hardware requirements, like what you find with on-premise phone systems. Likewise, migrating to a VoIP solution is a great way to control phone expenses for your business, as it eliminates the need to routinely install, maintain, repair and replace phone equipment, phone lines and switches. Cloud VoIP providers also charge significantly lower rates for local, long distance and international calls, as compared to traditional telecoms. Your company can also connect the phone equipment that it already owns, to a VoIP trunk provider’s network, and upgrade to IP-enabled phones on an individual basis, when existing phones become inoperable and too costly to repair. Many businesses also eliminate their desktop phones for good when switching to a VoIP solution, opting instead for SIP software installed on the computers and mobile phones. This allows them to take full advantage of the unified communications (UC) capabilities that are available via the cloud. 

2. Scalable Business Phone Solution

Whether you call it Hosted PBX, IP PBX or Cloud PBX , VoIP solutions provide your business with maximum control and flexibility, when it comes to the administration and management of your enterprise phone system. No more waiting for days or weeks for your local phone company’s installer to arrive, to add a new line or move an extension. VoIP solutions operate in the cloud, offering rapid provisioning for the calling features and phone services that your company uses. This makes it extremely easy to expand your calling capabilities on-demand and on a pay-as-you-go basis. Compare this to the expensive and inflexible alternative of traditional  phone systems, that require interfaces, licenses and bundled PRI circuits that your business doesn't currently need – and you'll easily see why companies of all sizes a rapidly moving away from their legacy phone systems, running full throttle to the cloud. 

3. Bundled Calling Features

The value that VoIP solutions offer for businesses doesn’t end with lower long-distance calling rates or the elimination of on-site installation fees. That’s just scratching the surface of the advantages that sip users, small, medium and large. VoIP providers offer a number of calling plans, bundled with dozens of popular calling features, like caller ID, call waiting, call forwarding, conference calling and more - all for a single price. You can set-up a direct number for every employee at your company, with direct inward dialing (DID), or you can set-up extension dialing for your business users, without an installer ever coming to your office. Compare this to your local phone company’s on-site installation charges, and their per-line charges for every single calling feature that you add, and you can see just how much your business can save on its phone expenses in the long run, by moving to a VoIP solution. But there’s even more good news than that, when it comes to the calling features that VoIP solutions have to offer.  Because VoIP solutions run in the cloud over an IP network, a real-time platform is always available for unified communications for every user on your Hosted PBX network, which traditional phone services are completely unable to offer. 

Disadvantages of VoIP

While the list of disadvantages for VoIP is rather brief, your business needs to know what they are, because several of the items listed can seriously threaten the productivity or safety of your business users, if not properly managed. 

1. No Default Emergency Dispatch Location

 If your company dials 911 over VoIP, there's no way for the 911 operator to know what physical address your call is coming from, which is quite a bit different  from the way that 911 works over landline phones. To ensure that emergency services can be dispatched to your location, you must provide your cloud VoIP provider with your physical address, being sure to also request an update to their records, if your business moves its operations to a different location.

2. Call Quality Issues


There's always the potential that your business may experience call quality issues, when using a VoIP solution. But the good news is that any call quality problems that your business experiences, can usually be easily resolved by making changes to your Internet connection bandwidth and/or IT network settings. The best solution to this is to always have your telephony service and internet connections coming from the same provider, like BroadConnect Telecom. This DRASTICALLY reduces the jitter and latency because they are a secure and private VoIP single sourced provider.

3. Service Interruptions

Because your VoIP services are delivered via a local Internet connection, your phone services could potentially stop working during a power outage, on some cloud VoIP provider platforms. Likewise, it's a good idea to have charged mobile phones on hand at all times, as backup communication devices, as well as a backup power supply that's designed to keep your phone system up and running, for an extended period of time, during a power outage. The best solution for this is to have simultaneous ringing set up on your mobile device. This Hosted PBX feature enables your mobile and desk phone to ring at the same time, no matter what the external issue may be.  


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