Traditional landline telephone systems have been a mainstay in business communications for over a century, and are still based off of technology developed in the late 1800s. Isn’t it about time for an upgrade?
Today, businesses are making the switch to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology for their calling networks for a service that’s not only faster and more powerful, but cheaper too. VoIP uses the Internet to route phone calls instead of aging telephone lines, which results in a more efficient calling system that’s actually based on modern technology. The included powerful calling features also help businesses save time and money. With VoIP, most businesses can expect to save between 50% - 80% every single month.
Businesses are using VoIP for one simple reason: it offers more phone for less money. VoIP offers several unique advantages over typical landlines, and the improved efficiency makes calling through VoIP much cheaper.
One of the most impacting differences that businesses notice is the increased efficiency from sending voice signals in a digital format as opposed to the traditional analog formatting of a standard phone. Analog signals take up much more bandwidth space and require a constant electrical connection between two phones for the entire duration of the call. When callers talk to one another on an analog network, they are technically "rentng" the phone line that connects the two phones. This is why long-distance calls are generally so expensive.
Digital signals, on the other hand, are compressed into hyper-efficient packets of data that fly through the Internet along several different paths to be reunited at the receiving end. This avoids using a phone line entirely, and even removes the factor of geographic distance from the equation. In fact, most business VoIP providers offer their users unlimited long-distance calling throughout the US (and sometimes even Canada).
Whether a business has 2,000 employees or just 2, there is a VoIP solution that is catered to their specific situation. With VoIP, small businesses have access to enterprise-grade calling features like an automated attendant and conference calling at an affordable rate. Similarly, larger businesses get to use a premium phone system while paying the same discount rates that much smaller businesses are usually privy to.
Smaller businesses can take advantage of Hosted PBX services, where they rely on their VoIP provider to own and operate a Private Branch Exchange (PBX) for a small monthly fee. A PBX is a standard tool in business telephony, but with a several thousand dollar price tag, most small businesses can’t even begin to afford them. For less than the price of the staffing and maintenance required for an in-house PBX, small businesses have all of the features of a big business PBX with none of the headache and only a fraction of the cost.
Paying for individual phone lines is expensive when companies are very large, but SIP trunking means that companies only have to pay for the number of extensions they expect to use simultaneously at peak calling hours. A SIP trunk converts the calls a business makes into cheap VoIP calls, and can be shared across multiple phones. Outbound calls go to the SIP trunk, no matter which extension they come from. That way, businesses don’t need to pay for lines they don’t actually need.
Business VoIP phone systems are superior to landline phone systems in every way. Not only are they cheaper, but VoIP calls have higher audio quality, more included features, and are more easily managed. Since most VoIP providers use a web portal for account management, users can simply log in to the webpage and click on the features they’d like for an immediate change. Businesses that are still stuck to a landline are wasting time and money, so make the switch today!