Category Archives: voice over ip

Your Business May Not Be Ready for VoIP

Although VoIP or Voice over IP (as it is also known) – basically phone calls over the Internet – is starting to become a popular solution for business telecommunications, your business might not be ready for it. Business networks come in all shapes and sizes, and a deficiency in one area of your network can prevent you from adopting a VoIP service solution. Fortunately, each of these factors can be addressed to ascertain whether your business is ready for VoIP

Your LAN

A LAN (Local Area Network) supplies the networking capability for the group of computers that your business operates from your office site. Your LAN must have the ability to both protect and prioritize data packets of information. The LAN’s switching fabric must also support prioritization of traffic through differentiated services (a form of computer networking architecture) and network segmentation via VLANs (Virtual Local Area Network, usually 802.1Q). In order to make troubleshooting easier and support high-quality service, your LAN should also have the ability to isolate real-time media and switch in real time.

Your Router

Your choice of router is also an important component of your network, and should also separate real time media from other traffic. The router should actually route real time media at a separate IP address, which will also help with analysis and optimization of performance.

Your Network Connection Speed

Possibly the most discussed factor in determining whether a particular business network can support VoIP is the actual quality of your Internet connection. Fortunately the discussion has inspired many resources such as “Pingtest” that enables business to evaluate their connection speed.

Your Equipment

Finally, the actual end user equipment will have a substantial impact on perceived VoIP service quality. Cheap handsets and headsets make for poor fidelity, and extra IT time spent diagnosing the problem. Although your choice of equipment may seem like a minor concern, the result of the choice will affect your both your productivity and your image. You can purchase VoIP phones from most VoIP PBX providers.

Be Sure You Are Ready

Make sure you are ready before causing a disastrous loss of phone service in your business. Once you find out about your ability (or lack thereof) to carry multiple voice calls simultaneously over your network and Internet service, you may reconsider cutting the cord to your traditional phone company’s reliable lines.

VoIP – Surprising Facts and Myths

Voice over IP (VoIP) was introduced to the main stream well over 10-years ago by companies like Vonage, Comcast and Magic Jack. As a result, many business owners believe that VoIP will save them money and deliver them an advanced set of features and services that traditional digital systems and services cannot. This impression is absolutely false. VoIP is a fantastic technology when used correctly and when all parties are informed of the deployment pros and cons.

VoIP has some serious pitfalls in some applications, if deployed solely to save money. Here are four different examples of VoIP applications and considerations:

VoIP used by telecom providers to move voice traffic over long distances.
VoIP used by businesses within their organization, to eliminate traditional digital voice communication products.

VoIP used within Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) fabric, to deliver voice service to businesses.
VoIP used in the residential market to bypass traditional analog lines and services.

1. VoIP used by telecom providers for long haul applications – Telecom providers have been using this service behind the scenes, much longer than the service has been available to the public. VoIP allows telecom companies to move un-metered traffic within their own networks, over great distances for no additional cost. Providers are able to segregate these networks, prioritize traffic and control end-to-end transmissions, thereby delivering a high-quality communication. The switch gear used to control this traffic is far better than the equipment available to most businesses for their in-house networks.

2. VoIP used by businesses in their local area networks (LAN) – Here are some common misconceptions regarding an in-house VoIP deployment:

understand voip voice over IP

VoIP’s Surprising Facts and Myths

Myth one; “I bought a VoIP system and now all my traffic is VoIP”. FALSE. You can have a VoIP solution within your organization and connect to the public network using digital or analog lines and vice versa. Your VoIP solution is not dependent on using VoIP services from the public network.

Myth two; “If I install a VoIP system, it will save me money”. FALSE. If you implement a VoIP system within your own network and you take all the necessary voice and data traffic quality considerations in to account, this application will not save you money on services or equipment. So if this is the only reason you are doing it… Stop and consult a trusted advisor.

Myth three; “VoIP will give me more features”. FALSE. Today, hybrid voice systems will give you all the same features as a VoIP system. These hybrid systems can use your existing cat.3 or cat.5 cables to deliver a combination of VoIP, digital and analog phones while using a combination of digital, analog and VoIP services in the network. Hybrid systems are very versatile and they do a great job of protecting your past infrastructure investments.
When considering a business VoIP system and implementation, consider the following to assure a more successful result:

Make sure your cabling Category 6, gigabit Ethernet certified.
Try to isolate your voice and data network cabling and switches from each other.
Make sure you purchase professional switches and routers that have a proven Quality of Service (QOS) feature. This means staying away from big box retail stores. 
Try to purchase Power Over Ethernet (POE) switches for the voice network. Most VoIP sets come with local power, but a POE switch can keep your desktop environment clean and make moving phones around the office much easier.

3. VoIP and SIP – Buyer beware. Although this technology is pretty slick and down the road it will enable some pretty cool presence features, it is a bring-your-own-bandwidth (BYOB) product that will not save you money. This will change, but right now sales people are selling this product by convincing businesses to downgrade their available call capacities. They are also leaving out critical information regarding a new practice of charging for incoming calls. I am a fan of SIP, just not the way it is being marketed today. In my opinion, SIP is more viable as a redundant backup solution rather than a primary service.

4. VoIP for residential market – Pro: It’s cheap. Con: You bring your own bandwidth (BYOB) and the quality can be unreliable at times. Because we are discussing a residential application, the Cons are not reason enough to avoid this product. Call quality is not mission critical in your home. Therefore, the low cost benefit of this service makes it a formidable foe to traditional POTS lines.

It is very important that you rely on a trusted adviser when contemplating a VoIP deployment. If you feel you need to do this in order to keep up with the competition, you are wrong. For more information feel free to contact us toll-free @ 1-855-929-9199.

(originally via Scott Sinclair)

VoIP Provides Access to the Previously Unreachable

Voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) has provided businesses a new means of communication. It has moved phone calls off traditional phones lines and onto the internet. VoIP can be more cost efficient than legacy options and can help call centers provide better customer service.

According to what IP telephony professional Itay Rosenfeld wrote in Telecom Reseller, it seems like VoIP is taking over the world. In reality, research found that 143.2 million people and businesses subscribed to public switched telephone network (PSTN)-style VoIP services in 2012, with the majority located in the United States, France and Germany.

Firmology said that with a premium VoIP system, call center employees can gather customer information before the call is even answered. They can see who’s calling, what services the customer has previously used and any issues experienced. Call activity is logged automatically in CRM and notes are updated if taken.

With these great innovations, it’s a surprise more companies are not making the switch, said Rosenfeld. One main reason is because there’s been a lack of access to emergency services like 911. Businesses love saving money but not losing access to the fire and police departments.

According to Fox affiliate WXIN, however, some areas in the U.S. have new high-speed systems that allow emergency officials to make phone calls, send text messages or distribute emails to people subscribed to the IP-based system.

But what about reaching officials? Rosenfeld reported that there’s a new option that supports phone capabilities from a single IP-based interconnection and provides access to emergency services. Whether a company uses cloud communications, VoIP or SIP trunking, this new option connects emergency calls via the PSTN. It also creates access in locations where cell coverage is poor or where a phone number is needed that’s not tied to a specific provider or place.

VoIP has emerged as the new standard for enterprise communication, and vendors (such as Telephone Magic Inc.) offer the media gateways and other solutions to ensure seamless and reliable integration of IP-based communication regardless of an organization’s size or its current telecommunications environment.

(via Sangoma)

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