The Benefits of VoIP

VoIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol, which is a way of processing telephone calls using internal and external digital data networks (the Internet and internal Intranets).  VoIP is steadily growing in popularity as it offers both businesses and individuals a reliable, high quality way to send and received calls to a very low cost, and is easy to set up and maintain.

Costs

The main benefits of this new type of telephony technology is the low costs.  Digital data is much cheaper and easier to transmit than a standard telephone signal, and does not rely on the global Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), which is a complex system that is costly to service and maintain.  In terms of billing if you are calling another VoIP the duration and destination of your call are irrelevant, and so you would not be charged for how long you spoke for or the location of your call, and this can save you a lot of money if you regularly place long distance and international calls.  With VoIP you just pay a flat rate of as little as $20 per month for all of your VoIP to VoIP calls, although if you are calling a standard PSTN you may be charged extra, although this would be at a much lower cost than standard PSTN rates.

Features

VoIP providers offer a great range of features for both businesses and individuals including:

• Voicemail, which can be accessed from any phone (also available with email alerts for new messages)
• Call forwarding so that you can forward unmanned telephones to other numbers when you are out of the office.
• Call waiting, which means you can put calls on hold to pick up new incoming calls
• Conference calling for businesses, which can save a lot of money on travel costs and help employees keep in regular contact.