What is VoIP

VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is quite simply a technology that transmits voice over an IP based network such as a companies internal LAN (Local Area Network) or the Internet. VoIP is gaining in popularity due to a number of benefits is holds over traditional forms of communication such as ISDN and is already extensively utilised by many carriers in the core and backbone networks.

The benefits of VoIP

VoIP is the latest evolution of telecommunications and has been adopted by all the major carriers in the core network already. There are even countries that have stopped supplying out-dated services such as ISDN in favour of VoIP. And most new telephone system use VoIP technology on the internal LAN, even if they break out to the PSTN via ISDN. So why is VoIP proving so popular with customers and carriers alike?
  • Cost - VoIP provides a lower cost alternative to the traditional networks such as ISDN. Call costs for businesses systems are substantially lower and so are the monthly rental charges.
  • Scalability - As VoIP doesn't require a physical channel for each concurrent call but rather just bandwidth on an ethernet connection it is much easier and cheaper to deploy and grow as required.
  • Flexibility - For multi-site organisations all internal phones can be on the same network, so calls between sites within the organisation are potentially toll free. This also means that calls can be transferred between sites as if they were in the same office even though they could be in different countries
  • Portability - Gone are the days where simply moving offices meant a costly and problemattic change of number or expensive call diversion. With VoIP, just like you mobile, you take the number with you.
  • Resilience - Disaster recovery is fast and cost effective. Simply log on to a portal and your calls can easily be re-routed.
Plus lots more...
  • Conference calling, call forwarding  and caller ID are all low-cost features.
  • Integration with other services such as voicemail, email and SMS is straightforward.
  • Advanced features such as videoconferencing are easier and cheaper to implement.
  • Advanced DDI offers comprehensive management and analysis tools