After all the research you have finally gotten around to doing on the topic of VOIP and VOIP services, you are just about ready to take the plunge. Making the decision to go with VOIP, however, is only half the battle. There are a truckload of VOIP providers out there, each one telling you that their service is the best one since sliced bread, so how do you make an intelligent and informed decision about which one to go with?

The first thing you need to realize is that not all VOIP services are created equally. One of the limiting factors is your high-speed Internet connection, since that will be used for your home VOIP to make and receive calls. VOIP will work reliably with DSL or cable (or better), but is not recommended if all you have is a satellite high-speed Internet connection, and VOIP is not recommended if you have access only to a wireless connection.

The vast majority of problems with VOIP from virtually any VOIP provider comes down to a lack of a reliable high-speed Internet connection. Your Internet provider may CLAIM you are getting reliable service and a fast connection, but if you are having trouble getting something as simple as VOIP to work on it, then they are blowing smoke at you and it may be time to look for another Internet provider. In terms of the Internet connection part of VOIP, that is just about as simple as things will ever get, and your Internet provider should be able to handle it. If they cannot, they may have purposely blocked it because they want to sell you VOIP services themselves … at twice the price!

Now you need to determine what VOIP features you need. Almost all the VOIP providers and VOIP plans provider caller ID, voicemail, and call waiting, so let’s see what else needs to be considered, and this is where things start to differ and get quite interesting.

Almost all of them offer unlimited long distance calling in the continental US. But do you call Canada a lot, or make frequent calls to Puerto Rico? If so, there are VOIP providers who include Canada and Puerto Rico in their unlimited calling plans.

Do you have friends, perhaps your parents or a sibling that you talk to a lot but they do not have VOIP? Is it the case where they call you frequently? You may wish to consider a plan that includes a virtual number or where you can get a virtual number cheaply. A virtual number is a phone number in that city. Say you live in Detroit so you of course have a Detroit phone number on your VOIP phone. Say you talk to your sister a lot in Houston who does not have a VOIP phone. You can get a Houston phone number in addition to your Detroit phone number, so now your sister can make a LOCAL call to your Houston number, and when she does, your VOIP phone at your home in Detroit will ring so it doesn’t cost her anything! Is that cool or what?

Determine your needs and then start comparing VOIP features to see which VOIP provider offers the most bang for the bucks, based on what you need. Don’t pay extra for VOIP services that you will only use once in a blue moon.



Thanks to Jon Arnold for contributing this article to our VoIP blog:

VoIP Broadband Phone Service

If you haven’t lived under a rock for the last several years, you’ve seen the ads for the VOIP Service Provider called Vonage, offering a box that, in addition to an Internet connection, lets you make unlimited long distance calls to the US and Canada for a low, flat fee. There are competing VOIP providers, like Skype (owned by eBay) with different pricing models.

VOIP stands for Voice Over Internet Protocol, and digitally translates your voice into packets that get routed over the Internet, much the same way an email is broken down into packets and sent over the Internet. The benefit of VOIP comes in comparison to traditional switched telephone networks, where calls were routed through individual switches, requiring extensive infrastructure on the part of the telephone companies, and thus, required charging per minute billing.

However, during the telecom boom of the late 1990s, every major telephone company laid new fiber optics lines and switched to a packet driven methodology, greatly reducing their operating expenses – albeit at the cost of a very large investment up front in the new technology.

The result of this is that, eventually, everything is going to go to VOIP, but certain VOIP service providers are jumping the gun, and you can benefit from it. There are VOIP providers that require a fixed monthly service fee or give you free calls to other numbers (or addresses) within their network, but charge you to call a regular land line, and there’s even a VOIP provider that’s looking to have you buy a $300 piece of hardware and get free phone calls for life.

In the past, VOIP software had latency issues – you’d speak, and there’d be a small (but noticeable) bit of lag between when you spoke and when the other party would hear you. As the networks have matured and grown more robust, and the digitization software has improved, this has ceased to be an issue. VOIP is a great technology for home use. With its virtual voice mail system and multi-line options, it’s also a great solution for a home based business, or home office for an entrepreneur; most VOIP service providers charge far less than what a typical telephone company does for the same level of services.

No discussion about VOIP would be complete without talking about one of the major gating factors of VOIP technology. That gating factor is that a good VOIP connection and conversation depend heavily on the reliability of your highspeed Internet connection. If your connection is not fast or reliable, chances are very high that your experience with VOIP technology is not going to be good. Unfortunately, the VOIP carrier you choose has no control over the speed or reliability of your Internet connection.

Still confused about VOIP and how to choose the right VOIP carrier? Our web site provides a great deal of detail about what to look for in VOIP service, where NOT to get VOIP service, and even our Expert Pick for the best VOIP service. VOIP is an extremely cost effective solution that if it’s right for you and your location, you should consider.



Thanks to Jon Arnold for contributing this article to our VoIP blog:

Ip Telephony Migration

When the Internet is used for communications by voice, facsimile, or video conferencing the process is called Internet telephony. Known as voice over the Internet VoI or voice over IP, VoIP, in this system, sound is converted into digital packets that are then transmitted over the internet to the receiver where it is once again converted into sound or text.

All one needs is a multimedia computer, a high speed Internet connection, a sound card, speakers, and a microphone. Since it reduces telecommunication costs significantly, many individuals and businesses are adopting this system. The charges of internet telephony are not dependant on the distance but just a flat fixed rate for use of bandwidth. The only thing is that both you and the person you are calling will need to have the same or compatible software.

First introduced in 1995 the PC-to-PC telephony is set to grow from US$ 1.96 billion in 2003 to US$9.08 billion in 2007. Industry experts predict that over half the phone traffic in the world will be based on IP protocol.

To use the VoIP system, all you need is a regular phone, an adapter, broadband Internet service, and a subscription to a VoIP service. All your offices on a LAN or WAN can benefit from a common phone system with extension dialing, seamless call transfers, voice mail, caller ID, conference calls, music-on-hold, free phone calls, as well as ability to transfer data.

Even while making or receiving calls, you can surf the web or use other web based applications. You will also be able to retain your existing PSTN phone number if the provider you use has this facility. A VoIP provider is a telecommunications company that will handle the technical aspects of the calls and provide the interconnection between VoIP and PSTN networks. Internal calls are transmitted as data on your company network while external calls are transmitted through the network to a gateway which in turn connects to a public telephone network.

The advantages of Internet telephony are numerous the first being cost effectiveness. With a high speed internet connection phone calls can be made all over the world for almost free. By signing up with a VoIP provider you can get unlimited calls within the country at very low costs. The system is portable and you can take the headset or internet phone along with you when traveling. When plugged in to an internet connection anywhere in the world you can both make and receive calls at no extra costs. Wonderful features like call waiting, call forwarding, voice mail, caller ID, and three -way calling are all included with the Internet telephone connection at no extra cost.

The system is flexible and you will be able to send documents as well as pictures over the system while you are talking on the phone. The problems you are likely to encounter are: inability to call emergency services, loss of service during power outages, problems with clarity of sound, and scrambling of data. These are however being addressed on a war footing and problems small or big should be ironed out quickly.

VoIP is all set to be the industry standard for telephone communication in the future and is all set to change communications forever.



Thanks to Paul Wilson for contributing this article to our VoIP blog:

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Can you answer shane’s question about VoIP?:

Hello guys.. please help me on this.. I planning to buy Netcomm NB9 VoIP Gateway Router and I have DSL connection. Can i make a phone call using VOIP technology and the above hardware to a landline phone without subscribing to VOIP service provider??? The end result I want is to make free phone calls using VOIP technology. Is there any ways I can achieve that without subscribing to any VOIP provider at all because they are charging a fee for the use of their gateway.. Hope to hear from you soon thank you

Wireless Broadband VoIP

Many businesses are now migrating towards VoIP networks because they recognize the significant value that a VoIP phone service offers. However, different businesses measure the value offered in different terms. Some see it in the cost savings and the advantages that a converged network has to offer. For others, the true value lies not just in cheap VoIP but more in the way it changes business productivity.

Any company that is planning on integrating VoIP phone service must first clearly understand the true value it offers, over the long run before making business critical decisions.

Cost Savings with Cheap VoIP

The most well known reason for adopting VoIP networks has been the potential to save costs both in long-distance and international calls as well as in certain regulatory costs and most certainly in toll costs. However, a firm has to carry out a more comprehensive analysis to see whether these cost savings can be realized in reality, especially for small and medium businesses. The reason being that in order to achieve true cost savings, certain economies of scale have to be in place. Also, the VoIP phone service provider must be able to provide the kind of technical set-up that makes it possible to have least-cost routing. Many large enterprises operate full-fledged call centers and may have the kind of economies of scale to feel the reduction in costs that a cheap VoIP may bring about. Even here though, the call volumes have to be fairly large to truly feel the effect of cost saving from cheap VoIP. Many therefore believe that cost savings is just a secondary advantage of the VoIP phone service while its true value lies elsewhere.

Unified Communications with VoIP

One of the main areas where a VoIP phone service helps tremendously is in management of employees. It is very easy to add a new employee to the system by just giving them handsets that connect to the IP stack either through a port or a Wi-Fi network. This can easily be carried out by an in-house staff member and does not require a specially trained third-party to step in. If the employee is moved, all he has to do is to move the handset to the new location and connect it to the network and the same number is up and running.

In VoIP networks, there is a general simplification in infrastructure, with converged networks carrying both voice and data. This allows a single, smaller set of trained personnel to take care of the networks.

The unified communications feature that a VOIP phone service offers forms a huge part of the value that it offers. It is possible to integrate voice with other business communications, delivering voicemail and faxes to an employee inbox.

Selecting or unselecting of features becomes very simple with a VoIP network. For example, it is very easy to set up call forwarding to cellphones or add voice recording in a VoIP system.

Other than cheap VoIP reliability of service as well as voice quality are areas of concern for large enterprises as well as small and medium businesses.

Thus each organization has to carefully understand the real benefits of a VoIP phone service and then prepare the business to derive the real value from a VoIP implementation.

Resource Box: The real value of a Business VoIP Solution is the cost savings. However there are many other benefits of a Business VoIP System that may not be so obvious but are none the less just as valuable as saving money.



Thanks to Amelie Mag for contributing this article to our VoIP blog:

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