VoIP: Advantages
We at Voiplid Network are VoIP providers, therefore it’s safe to assume we know a thing or two about VoIP. Here’s a full breakdown of its advantages and disadvantages:
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We have considered the benefits and drawbacks of VoIP phone systems when writing the complete guide. Please click here to go directly to the summary table.
An Overview of VoIP's Advantages and Disadvantages
- Defining VoIP
- VoIP: Advantages
- VoIP: Disadvantages
- Using VoIP Services at Home/Office
- IP Telephony for Businesses
- How to Switch to VoIP
- Reduced expenses
- expanded accessibility
- utter portability
- superior scalability
- for big and small teams, advanced features
- Supports multitasking with a clearer voice quality
- Softphones provide more flexibility
1. Lower Costs
Every firm, no matter how big or small, must focus on the bottom line. Therefore, you must take into account any chance to reduce costs. Investing in a VoIP phone system is one way businesses may save a lot of money.
Think about this
Business landline phone systems (POTS) typically cost $30 per line per month. Only local (and occasionally domestic) calls are included in this pricing. VoIP plans, on the other hand, start at less than $20 per line.
What’s that?
That’s correct. According to these estimates, VoIP can reduce your phone bill by more than half of what it is presently.
It’s vital to know that switching to VoIP does not guarantee that your phone bills will go down. Businesses differ, as do their requirements.
But one thing is certain: switching to VoIP will result in significant cost savings. VoIP saves money in two ways: directly and indirectly.
1. Direct Cost Savings
Traditional phone service has high upfront expenses for businesses. Especially when it comes to corporate phones and PBX equipment.
a) PBX Costs
A PBX (private branch exchange) is a physical piece of hardware that is installed on-site. It links several landline phones in a workplace and can be quite expensive. We’re talking tens of thousands of dollars here, which you may spread out over several years.
You may claim that analogue phones are around the same price as IP phones. The precise pricing will vary depending on the requested features.
However, onsite PBX systems are an expensive capital investment. It might cost between $400 and $1,000 per user. As a result, even a small company with a few people must invest in physical hardware.
Because a broadband connection powers the service.
VoIP networks eliminate the need for additional hardware.
Such organization’s could use a Session Initiated Protocol, also known as a SIP Trunk, to ease the transition in their phone system upgrades. A SIP Trunk serves as a digital conduit for your voice services, allowing you to keep your existing phone hardware in place. The main advantages of SIP Trunking include lower costs, easier management, and the ability to activate service immediately.
Technology leaders use a SIP trunking provider to add new voice capabilities to an existing phone system.
b) Copper Wiring Fees
Because VoIP networks allow both voice and data on the same channel, broadband connections eliminate the need for extra wiring. Full-duplex is the correct term in IT and telecom circles. It is the ability to send and receive voice and data at the same time. Most VoIP desk phones require only one Ethernet connection.
Power over Ethernet (PoE) allows offices to be more modular in terms of staffing. Furthermore, no changes to the building’s electrical wiring will be required.
Going entirely wireless? Professional VoIP services are also available as a computer or smartphone app. The flexibility of VoIP is a big plus for both entrepreneurs and businesses.
c) Calling Costs
The cost of calling is another example of a direct cost. VoIP calls are significantly less expensive than calls over the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) or the traditional circuit-switched telephone network.
A large part of this is due to the precipitous drop in data carriage costs. Initially, data was priced out of most small businesses’ reach. Even in large organisations, users had to deal with enterprise internet bandwidth and broadband caps.
Nowadays, however, internet speeds have increased while data costs have decreased.
According to statistics, small businesses that use VoIP can cut their phone bill by up to 60%. They can also save up to 90% on international phone calls.
Power over Ethernet (PoE) allows offices to be more modular in terms of staffing. Furthermore, no changes to the building’s electrical wiring will be required.
Going entirely wireless? Professional VoIP services are also available as a computer or smartphone app. The flexibility of VoIP is a big plus for both entrepreneurs and businesses.
We’re talking about a sizable number in any given year.
These savings stem from the elimination of costly ISDN (Integrated Service Digital Network) primary rate interfaces.
Alternatively, dedicated lines associated with a POTS system can be replaced with VoIP service. Businesses that make long-distance calls outside the United States benefit from VoIP’s lower costs.
Traditional phone service is approximately twice as expensive as VoIP. VoIP provides significant benefits for global businesses.
d) Ongoing Expenses
A VoIP service also allows businesses to reduce other ongoing costs such as taxes, repairs, and maintenance. These costs are typically rolled into subscription plans, which, in the case of Nextiva, can be as low as $5 per user per month.
All of these costs, when added together, make VoIP an appealing proposition for growing startups and SMBs.
Savings on indirect costs
Indirect savings are more difficult to quantify, but they are no less important for your business. The following are some of the most common areas where businesses can save money in the long run.
a) Cost Savings Through Remote Work
By converting to VoIP, employees can remain linked to the business phone system while working remotely. This is due to the numerous VoIP phone capabilities such as call waiting, auto-attendant, instant video calling, conference calling, and others that are not available on traditional phones.
According to studies, this not only increases staff productivity but also saves money on utilities and office space.
According to a recent Global Workplace Analytics study, allowing employees to work from home 60% of the time can save a typical company $15,000 per year.
b) Optional Extras at No Extra Cost
You may be quick to point out that even traditional PBX offers remote working via features such as call transfer, group ringing, call queuing, and so on.
In essence, these functions are not built into a normal PBX system. Rather, they are optional extras that must be purchased separately.
In comparison, VoIP phone providers include several of these capabilities for free. There is no need to pay extra for any feature that you believe may be beneficial to your organization.
2) Enhanced Accessibility
Aside from cost savings, one of the most significant advantages of VoIP for business is accessibility. The flexibility to make calls from anywhere is a significant advantage of cloud-based VoIP service.
You can make and receive calls for your business if you have a good data connection. When you are unable to answer the phone, you can have calls forwarded to another person or have voicemails emailed to you. One well-known advantage of VoIP is the ability to take your business phone with you wherever you go with only a softphone software.
Remote accessibility allows your company to remain adaptable in an increasingly mobile workforce. Mobile employees may remain productive regardless of where they are.
Furthermore, VoIP adjusts to the way your staff work. Employees are not required to be physically present at the workplace. They may use their cellphones and tablets to work from anywhere.
3) Total Portability
A VoIP number, also known as a virtual number, can be moved at any time. This means you can use the same phone number wherever.
This should be quite nice news for frequent travelers. Even better, if your company relocates, you can keep the same VoIP number.
4) Greater Scalability
Another of the many VoIP benefits that make it an appealing proposition for developing enterprises is scalability. While this is an often discussed component of VoIP, what precisely does it mean?
Given the choice, every business owner would want a phone system that develops with them.
As your business grows, a VoIP solution eliminates the need to acquire expensive hardware or a dedicated line. Consider all of the various outcomes here, as if you’re:
- Getting ready for a surge in demand around the holidays
- Establishing a new branch office
Regardless of the situation, you can rapidly change your preferences without the need for additional lines or specific gear.
5) Advanced Functionality for Small and Large Teams
VoIP, with advanced capabilities such as auto attendant and call shifting, enables even a one-person firm to present the image of a larger corporation.
It can, on the other side, make a massive corporation feel more approachable. It all comes down to making the greatest use of all of the available features.
Assume you have a Charlotte-based company that also serves clients in distant states such as Oregon.
You may receive a VoIP phone number with the Oregon area code if you sign up with a company like Voiplid Network , even if you live in North Carolina. Customers will regard you as a local even if you are not.
Similarly, the auto attendant feature can make you appear bigger than you actually are. For example, you may be a lone proprietor but have your auto attendant set up to sound like a corporation with many departments.
With its multi-party calling features, VoIP outperforms traditional phone networks. Large and small businesses alike frequently require a separate conference call provider that allows multiple users to join the same call.
Business VoIP service providers give robust conference calling options as standard.
6) Improved Voice Quality
When VoIP service initially became available, one of its most major problems was its poor call quality. Calls would drop for no apparent reason, voice quality was poor, and delay was the norm.
Today, as long as you have a fast and steady Internet connection, audio quality should not be an issue. VoIP communications are often crisp and clear, with minimal latency difficulties, lag, or call dropouts. We’ve all been on a bad voice and video conference before.
A strong connection with adequate bandwidth is essential for high-quality VoIP calls. Without this, it may be a nightmare, especially if your workplace frequently makes concurrent calls. Someone always phones in on their cell phone, and everyone else suffers from echo’s, delays, and background noise.
VoIP phones eliminate distractions, allowing you to concentrate on the meeting’s agenda. VoIP phones gain greater sound quality because to innovations such as noise-cancelling microphones and sophisticated audio compression.
7) Allows for multitasking
In addition to typical phone conversations, VoIP allows you to transfer documents, photos, and videos while also conversing. As a result, you may have more integrated meetings with clients or employees from all over the world.
8) Softphones Provide More Flexibility
Softphones, despite their name, are not physical devices. They are instead programmed that are installed on a computer or other smart devices such as a tablet or smartphone. Skype is an excellent example, while commercial VoIP companies such as Nextiva offer services designed specifically for business.
The benefits of using a softphone for corporate conversations are numerous:
- Frees up work space and reduces the need for extra equipment.
- This allows for even more portability.
- Allows for a continually linked workforce
Furthermore, softphones enable you to be adaptable. They provide you access to capabilities that let you operate remotely.
9) Enhanced Security
Most individuals do not want to waste time worrying about the security of their phone system. Phone system security is critical, particularly for corporations. There has never been a greater need for personally identifiable information (PII).
A common access method is to deceive employees with fake phone calls, often known as social engineering.
VoIP may reduce such security vulnerabilities by exploiting IP technological developments such as encryption and enhanced identity management.
Hosted VoIP services defend their networks around the clock so you don’t have to.
Working with a trustworthy VoIP provider that conducts independent security audits, ensuring staff adopts good password habits, and configuring automatic warnings for suspect calling activity are all part of securing your VoIP system.
Furthermore, it is always recommended to conduct operating system upgrades on a regular basis to ensure that your organization is not put at danger by emerging vulnerabilities.
VoIP: Disadvantages
Everything that has a benefit also has a drawback. This regulation does not apply to VoIP telephony.
Here are some disadvantages of using VoIP that you should be aware of:
- Reliable Internet Connection Required
- Latency and jitter are required.
- There is no tracking of emergency calls’ location.
Reliable Internet Connection Required
To begin with, the quality of your VoIP service is only as good as your internet connection. If your network bandwidth is limited, your service will suffer.
VoIP does not consume as much bandwidth as you may think. It is critical that VoIP devices on your network have minimal latency. Each device should have an upload speed of at least 512kbps.
A good connection has ping and jitter less than 60ms, which evaluates the latency and stability of your internet connection.
The amount of bandwidth required by your business will be determined by the number of concurrent calls you want to make. The easiest method to find out is to perform a bandwidth test on your present network.
2) Latency and Jitter
Aside from speed, any internet-based system might experience latency and jitter.
When conversing online, each communication (whether email, video, or audio) is separated into data packets. The original message is then created by reassembling these packets at their intended destination.
Latency and jitter occur when data packets are either delayed in transmission or incorrectly reassembled. These faults may not even be with your network; big internet backbones change data pathways to transmit traffic in the most reliable and fastest manner to a destination.
These modifications occur automatically and without your intervention.
Why latency and jitter occur
- Poor Internet connection – VoIP consumes more bandwidth than standard online browsing. So, if you’re unhappy with your Internet speed, this could be a good time to talk to your ISP.
- Inadequate router – For VoIP service to function properly, a specific VoIP router is required. This is a router setup for packet prioritization, which prioritizes voice traffic above data traffic.
- Inadequate cables – Ethernet cables are classified according to their power level. A Cat-5e Ethernet cable or higher is recommended for VoIP. Lower cables may be incapable of operating at sufficient rates.
How to Resolve Latency and Jitter Problems
- Enable jitter buffering – This is simple to configure and comes pre-enabled on many Yealink devices.
- Choose high-speed Internet — Inquire with your internet service provider about available bandwidth alternatives.
- Upgrade your Ethernet cables – On all VoIP devices, use a CAT-5e, CAT-6, or CAT-7 Ethernet cable.
3) Emergency Calls Have Limited Location Tracking
The final disadvantage of VoIP is location tracking. Third parties have a tough time determining where a call originated due to VoIP’s mobility and accessibility.
The calls originate from an IP address with no GPS or mobile tower data to monitor. While 99 percent of callers do not require this information, it can pose a problem for emergency services such as 911. In an emergency, you must transmit your location.
Using VoIP Services at Home
To connect to a VoIP service provider, you’ll need a VoIP phone. You can accomplish this in one of three ways:
- Connect a dedicated VoIP to your WiFi or wired ethernet.
- Use your regular analogue phone, but with an analogue telephone adaptor.
- Install a softphone programme that includes a microphone, speaker, or headset on your computer.
Business VoIP Services
Businesses typically switch from traditional copper-wire telephone systems to VoIP systems for two reasons:
Efficiency in bandwidth
Cost savings
VoIP is an appealing option for organisations since it allows both voice and data to flow over the same network and works with current infrastructure. Even if you were to extend your VoIP lines, it would still be less expensive than Private Branch Exchange (PBX) lines.
Today, VoIP for organisations includes the following features, which are referred to as Unified Communications:
- Phone calls
- faxes
- Voicemail
- web conferencing, and other services
As a result, even with a limited budget, VoIP may help corporations and SMBs flourish.