We've recently covered why having a landline number is good for business and we did tout VoIP as being the way forward. VoIP is one of those technologies that you've maybe been hearing and reading about for many years now. It’s gotten to the point that you rarely see a discussion of how VoIP works or even what it is anymore. So let’s take a step back, walk through the basics, and answer the question: how does VoIP work and what can it do for your business?
What is it?
VoIP is Voice Over Internet Protocol, or in more common terms: phone service over the Internet.
If you have a reasonable quality Internet connection you can get phone service delivered through your Internet connection instead of from your local phone company. This opens up quite a few possibilities for your new or existing business and trust us, it's actually nowhere near as technical as it might sound and nowadays it's very cost-effective. A comprehensive discussion of the technical details of VoIP can get very complicated, so here’s an explanation for us non-techies.
VoIP takes a standard analog phone call - the type most homes and businesses still make today over the public phone network, and converts that analog call into digital packets. Then, rather than traveling over the standard phone network, those packets are transmitted across the internet to the other parties on the call. Voice packets of a VoIP calls travel over the internet just like any other type of digital data, such as an email message or a file being uploaded to your Google Drive.
Now, for the common user, a VoIP phone system is mostly indistinguishable from a usual phone system however they are in-fact fundamentally different in the way they operate 'behind-the-scenes'.
What does it do?
VoIP systems provide users an escape from being tied to a desk because their office phone numbers will no longer be limited to any particular phone. For example, most modern VoIP providers offer an app enabling users to make business calls on their desktop, laptop or mobile device using nothing but an internet connection, a microphone and speaker setup or headset, and the app itself. Calls you make or receive from anywhere, too, will use the same number. That ensures you present a professional image to clients or customers wherever you speak to them from.
A modern VoIP systems will grow as fast as your business can - this is referred to as scalability. With traditional telephony, expanding a business's system can be a major undertaking - cables to run potentially, more networking equipment required and new phone devices. Things can be much simpler with VoIP. A system can be expanded to include new workstations or phones with ease and new features can be added with a 'flick of a switch'.
In other words, a VoIP system can act as a full-scale cloud communications platform, allowing your team to easily manage calls and other communications features, including auto attendants with recorded greetings, advanced call routing and forwarding services, virtual voicemail, and even online faxing.
Businesses can drastically reduce costs in a variety of areas. Initial hardware and setup expenses are often much lower. Call charges, too, can be a lot lower. That’s in addition to the added accessibility and agility which a VoIP system provides.
How does it work?
Now bare with me here, it could get rocky. I'll cover the principles and then if there's any bits you aren't sure on just drop me a line and I can explain further.
With a regular phone call, a specific physical path is provided by a phone company. That path goes between yourself and the number that you call. That system also utilises the traditional telephony infrastructure, which means the network of phone lines crossing the country - usually provided by BT in our country.
With VoIP, calls are transmitted differently. The audio at your end of a call (your voice) is converted into digital packets. It's easiest to think of them as being like envelopes of data. In the same way as traditional envelopes contain what you've written.
The conversion of audio voice signals into digital packets is handled by what is known as 'codecs'. Codecs can be either hardware devices or software-based processes. They compress the voice signals and then encode them as digital data. To continue our analogy, they take what you say and pop it into the digital envelopes.
The data packets are then transmitted via IP. This can be either across a Local Area Network (LAN, like in your home or office) or online (over the world wide web). They're often transmitted via the Real-Time Transport Protocol (RTP). Or, if not, via the Secure Real-Time Transport Protocol. The latter is simply an encrypted version of the former. This stage of the process is like a postman picking up your envelopes and taking them to the destination.
The data packets reach their destination almost instantly. They then need to be decoded and decompressed. This is handled by codecs. They take the digital data and convert it back to audio signals. The recipient of your call heard your voice as they would down a normal phone line. The codecs at their end of the transmission open the envelopes for them to read.
Away from the technicalities, the process of making a VoIP call doesn't have to be much different to a standard phone call. To make the calls, you can either use hardware or a software-based VoIP phone.
The former is very much like a traditional desk phone. It will look almost identical and can be used in all the same ways. That doesn't only mean making calls. Most VoIP phones also let you use voicemail, make internal calls, and call transfer tasks. If no one told you, you might not know you weren't using a regular phone.
Software-based VoIP phones are often called 'softphones'. They're apps or programs installed on a mobile device or computer. The interfaces of those apps or programs replace a traditional phone handset. They're often designed to look similar and can be used either via a touchscreen or keyboard. Calls through these phones typically use a headset and microphone.
Getting started with VoIP
So...that’s everything you need to know about VoIP (for now).
All of that may have been enough to convince you that VoIP is the way to go. If so, you’ll be wondering how to switch to the more modern system. Well here's another advantage - it’s super easy to do so. Your first step is always to contact a trustworthy provider who can talk you through the rest of the process. That's where we come in.
I hope it's been an interesting read and it hopefully wasn't too technical - again, if any of it was, just drop me a line and I can explain with some pretty pictures maybe.
