Mobile Carrier Brings VoIP Home For Its Customers

The number of Americans who have a landline phone in their home keeps decreasing - mostly due to cell phones now being made available free for those living below the poverty line, and the up and coming generation that depends on mobile service exclusively.

Even many traditional landlines are no longer 'traditional' - many homes tap into their home's existing wiring but route calls out through their IP - using the internet to send and receive calls with their regular handsets. With VoIP service becoming a common 'bundled feature' provided by cable television and internet service providers, a large number of homes now actually have their phone service through broadband.

For those diehards who still maintain POTS (plain old telephone service), however, the high cost is starting to wear thin. In response, mobile phone carriers are stepping up to the plate with incentives for those who already have mobile service to leave POTS behind.

T-Mobile is one such company, offering home VoIP service as an add-on to existing mobile plans, at the staggeringly low rate of $10 a month. This move essentially demotes landline service to the status of an afterthought - perfect for those who are attached by umbilical to their mobile, but wouldn't mind having the convenience of a 'regular phone' at their home.

The $10 plan is available to be added to any existing cellular plan with T-Mobile, and covers unlimited calling in the US and Canada. Similar VoIP service from competitors Vonage and AT&T come in around $25 a month, making the T-Mobile plan the best priced VoIP for home service, if exclusive to T-Mobile customers.

The service does require a broadband internet connection and a T-Mobile @Home HiPort Wireless Router with Home Phone Connection, which is offered by the company for $50 with a two-year service agreement. (2 years service plus router: $290; compared to traditional phone service averaging $60 a month for unlimited calling in the US and Canada, the savings per customer is nearly $600 a year.)

Barely 9% of Americans still have landline only service, and only 79% maintain a landline at all, according to a recent survey by Harris Interactive. 15% already use VoIP as a landline alternative. In contrast, 89% of adults now own a cell phone, and 14% use a cell exclusively, up from only 11% in 2006. With the advances being made with mobile VoIP options, plans like the one T-Mobile offers may become much more popular.

Saiju is a VoIP and business software expert specializing in business phone service and hosted IP PBX solutions.

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How Viable is VoIP For Businesses?

Entrepreneurs and investors know how important communication is to the success of any venture. Having proper communication channels with clients, suppliers, partners and staff ensures that every aspect of the business is well met and organized to make sure all processes runs as smoothly as possible. Making certain that all vital information be quickly relayed--whether it be to employees, clients or suppliers-keeps the business from collapsing.

To ensure that proper communication channels are in place, businesses invest in telecommunication systems: telephones, fax machines, PABX systems, cellular phones - for local and if necessary, international communications. However, owning and maintaining such systems may cost a considerable amount of capital, usually an amount that would be too taxing for newly established small to medium sized enterprises. Furthermore, traditional PSTN or Public Switched Telephone Networks have certain limitations that may not keep up with needs, particularly in the highly competitive global market.

What businesses need is a viable alternative solution that can cater to all their telecommunications demands. Business VoIP solutions can fulfill this requirement - and much more. The following is an overview of VoIP solutions for businesses and how they can benefit small to medium and even large enterprises.

An Overview of Business VoIP Features and Benefits

VoIP or Voice over Internet Protocol makes use of the Internet to send voice packets over the Internet instead of the traditional PSTN switched telephone lines. Unlike PSTN lines, which are heavily regulated resulting in premium pricing (particularly for international calls), VoIP calls are much cheaper and may only require a fixed minimal monthly fee for all calls regardless of point of origin.

Traditional PBX or Private Branch Exchange systems require sophisticated and highly expensive telecommunications equipment in order to connect all telephone lines in the business to the PSTN network. Business VoIP systems, on the other hand, only require a broadband internet connection to make calls. Plug your phone in with an Ethernet cable and you're halfway there.

Business VoIP networks offer a wide array of features and functions that would prove useful for business users. These features include voicemail boxes, conference bridges, auto-attendants, call groups, caller ID, call forwarding and much.

What VoIP Can Do for Your Business

Businesses often rely on making multiple phone calls each day to existing and prospective clients. In traditional systems, the number of calls that can be made at the same time will depend on how big the PBX systems is to accommodate all connected telephones, and how fast the operator can switch and route the calls. With hosted VoIP, more telephone lines and calls can be made at the same time and are routed automatically to their intended destinations without the need for additional manpower to facilitate the calls.

The globalization of most industries requires businesses to maintain a presence in different states or even different countries to cater to an international clientele. Maintaining proper communications between these offices would be too costly using traditional phone networks. With hosted VoIP solutions, different offices do not have to invest in separate PBX equipment and international calls can be made at discounted rates.

The added features and functions offered by VoIP for business like video-conferencing, unified messaging, and multimedia applications result in better productivity and increased opportunities for higher revenues. Staff can work from anywhere, telecommute, and keep up vital communication with management on the go. All these attributes make business VoIP solutions a viable telecommunications tool soon to be a vital element for the success of any growing business.

Saiju is a VoIP and business software expert specializing in hosted phone system solutions and hosted IP PBX services.

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The Convenience of VoIP and Click to Call Integration

If you use the web like a yellow pages, you might be interested in learning more about how to integrate your browsing experience with your internet based phone service. Imagine not having to look up a phone number and dial it manually from a mobile phone or traditional land line - instead, just click to place the call instantly right from your computer screen!

Click to call functionality is available in Mozilla browsers with a Firefox add-on that turns any phone number on a web-page into a link, allowing an instant connection. All you have to do is configure your VoIP / PBX service so that when you click on the phone number, a call is automatically placed using your SIP address.

This can be especially handy if you start the conversation and need to bring in another team member for consultation, or a senior executive to approve a pricing agreement with a vendor. Since you are already utilizing your internet based phone service, conferencing in a third person is simple.

You can click to call from the Google based Chrome browser as well with a Chrome add-on. This feature is extremely handy for research if you are at your desk making call after call to compare pricing from one vendor to another, trying to track down an elusive item, or seeking information.

You can also configure Microsoft Outlook for click to call, making it easy to place calls to any of your contacts with a single click. This makes reaching the people you call frequently easier than ever, and also allows you to quickly and efficiently place calls at the same low rate as usual when using VoIP from your PC.

When using Microsoft Outlook, you can not only call contacts directly from Outlook, you can also call any other phone numbers while still in Outlook, set up calls from numerous locations in Outlook, and have speed dial and redial features right at your fingertips.

Click to Call calls placed from Microsoft Outlook will ring your soft phone first, then connect the call to the other party. This allows you to use almost any type of phone by providing a wider range of compatibility.

Saiju is a VoIP and business software expert specializing in hosted phone system and hosted IP PBX solutions.

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VoIP Solutions For the Home and Small Office

Voice over IP (VoIP) uses a broadband Internet connection to transmit telephone communications. VoIP-connected users can call other VoIP users or those still hooked to traditional phone lines with no real discernible difference between the quality of audio or transmission compared to using a conventional telephone.

In many cases, home phone customers simply use their original phones hooked to a modem that makes them compatible with the IP connection. Many modems can plug into one phone jack and literally hijack a home's internal telephone wiring, making every phone in the house available for use with VoIP.

Large businesses are more likely to have their own custom-built VoIP infrastructures for unified communications. Hosted VoIP services are available for small to medium companies that don't want their own PBX. While not as fully customizable as an in-house hosted system, hosted business VoIP does offer many useful features and the monthly fees are still often lower than standard telephone service.

A hosted VoIP service is particularly useful for small to mid-sized companies with many small branches, remote offices, or work from home / telecommuting employees. Options such as click to call, voice message retrieval from email, free PC to PC calling and high quality conference calling are just a few of the features available with a small business VoIP service.

Unlike POTS (plain old telephone service), which requires expensive and often time consuming installation, VoIP can be installed quickly and easily. Additional lines can be added at any time, and home offices simply need an IP connection and a VoIP router or phone to connect with the main office network.

Most VoIP providers allow businesses to set up their group phones at multiple locations, and move them whenever necessary. A phone number can be assigned to a person or department instead of an office or desk, and the number can be used to receive or make calls from any registered device.

Whether you have a small office and want to use VoIP as an alternative to POTS, for cheaper international calls and greater functionality, or you have a large organization and need to utilize VoIP as part of a larger unified communications plan, the benefits of this service cannot be underestimated.

For home VoIP, existing hardware can be used to make VoIP a cheap alternative to regular telephone service. For business use, additional software and soft phones can be added as well as mobile add-ons and browser functionality to provide the most productive work environment.

Saiju is a unified communications and business software expert. He specializes in business VoIP service and hosted IP PBX solutions.

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Opting for VoIP Greatly Benefits Small Businesses

Internet telephony or VoIP has been around for quite sometime, but its usage has been limited. Very few businesses embraced the technology in its early form, despite the tempting possibility of paying unimaginably low prices for long-distance calls. The wariness shown then by skeptics was for good reason: the available Internet connections during those days were slow and far from what is ideal for VoIP.

Six years later, small and large businesses are migrating to VoIP technology in droves. Innovations in the technology have made it possible for service providers to offer high quality VoIP service, with the standard features for multiple simultaneous connections, Web conferencing, fax handling, email and voice, as well as non-standard amenities that increase the productivity and flexibility of companies. In short, VoIP has become a convergence tool that simplifies business operations.

Benefits for small businesses

There are many VoIP solutions available that suit the budgets of small companies and start-ups. Some solutions require the purchase and installation of dedicated equipment on the premises, while others offer hosting services wherein VoIP hardware are located offsite and only the interface equipment (PCs, phone extensions, VoIP-enabled handsets) are in the business location. Whatever one chooses, the company will derive the following benefits for going VoIP.

Cheaper local and international calls

This is the most compelling reason for switching to Internet telephony, especially for companies with personnel and clients from all parts of the globe. This includes sales personnel in the field and staff working remotely from homes or branches in other states or countries. Typically, service providers offer free calls between VoIP phones, and fixed rate for local, mobile and international calls that are just a fraction of the prices for wired telephones, giving multi-state or multinational businesses a distinct advantage.

Better customer service and streamlined operations

Among the innovations in VoIP are advanced call distribution (ACD) and integration of customer relationship management (CRM) systems into the network. ACD streamlines call handling by call queuing, call parking (routing an incoming call to a special extension the number of which the receiver will dial to answer the call) and direct inward dialing (bypassing the switchboard and instead connecting directly to the specific office or person, based on the number dialed).

VoIP-CRM integration, on the other hand, leverages the present network infrastructure to add functionalities to increase business capabilities. Tasks like outbound marketing campaigns become easier with CRM features like list management, status reporting, caller ID with instantaneous data retrieval to know at once important customer data, and tracking of calling activities.

The savings on monthly telephone costs and improved productivity are solid reasons for small and medium businesses to take a hard look and consider migrating to VoIP. Leveraging this technology will definitely make small companies with limited resources more competitive during uncertain times. More importantly, adopting VoIP makes a company ready for expansion when the economy picks up.

Saiju is a hosted VoIP PBX and hosted IP PBX expert.

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Preparing Your Internet for a VoIP Phone System

VoIP naturally crosses paths with Ethernet systems, the computer networking standard primarily designed for local area networks (LAN). We may not be aware of it but the VoIP telephones we use in the office or the VoIP-enabled Blackberry phone we use on-the-go rely on some form of an Ethernet system somewhere to send and receive voice calls.

What is the Ethernet?

In its most basic and easily understandable form, Ethernet is the system most often used to connect computers that are relatively close to each other such as desktop PCs in offices or computer terminals in libraries. This proximity of the linked computers is the defining characteristic of the LAN architecture, which is different from linked computer systems in separate and distant locations in Wide Area Network (WAN) architectures, as seen in bank ATMs.

The basic Ethernet setup involves a single cable shared by all the computers or terminals (called nodes), in a topology that enables all the devices connected to the system to communicate with each other. Each device has a unique identifier in its 48-bit Media Access Control (MAC) address, which enables it to send and receive transmissions. The Ethernet setup allows the addition or removal of any device, without affecting other connected devices.

Voice calls in VoIP systems are turned into data packets and hence, can be transmitted through the same shared cable in the Ethernet system. The VoIP transmission may be just within the local area network (such as in IP-PBX setup with local lines) or to a computer softphone, VoIP phone, or landline outside the LAN. If the LAN traffic travels from the Ethernet to other networks or over the Internet, the data packets are repackaged and tagged at each gateway edge device as VoIP packets until they reached their destination.

Advantages and challenges of VoIP in Ethernet systems

In businesses already provisioned with sufficient LAN bandwidth and speeds, it is simply a matter of installing software in desktop PCs, or procuring some hardware (VoIP phone, IP-PBX systems) to set up working VoIP lines. This is possible since Ethernet has improved from the original 10 Mbit/s to a 1 Gbit/s implementation that can easily accommodate the Quality-of-Service requirements of VoIP.

The convergence in communications allows companies to eliminate the waste inherent in circuit-switched telephone systems. Companies may also save on monthly subscription fees, charges for long-distance calls and add-on services, and maintenance fees.

However, if the currently available bandwidth and speed of the broadband connection is inadequate, it may require additional costs to replace the current setup. Legacy coaxial cables used in antiquated systems (Ethernet was standardized in the 1980s) must be replaced with fiber optic cables, and newer networking standards such as spanning-tree and mesh protocols must be adopted to minimize widespread system failures.

Another advantage of Ethernet is the ability to expand into wireless technology like WiFi to bring connectivity to a new level. WiFi is essentially wireless Ethernet with universal presence, and it only necessitates adding VoIP-compatible wireless access points to enable voice calls in the system. WiFi operates in an unlicensed spectrum, but there is possibility of hampered connectivity due to the limited range of wireless devices.

Saiju is an IP communications and business software expert. He enjoys recommending VoIP for business and finding great hosted IP PBX systems and SIP service provider solutions

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How Does Bandwidth Affect Your Voice Over IP Experience?

One of the most common terms that come to mind when discussing migration to VoIP systems is network bandwidth. This term - often interchangeably used with network speed - refers to the data transfer rates supported by the network, expressed in either Kilobits per second (Kbps), Megabit per second (Mbps) or Gigabit per second (Gbps). Bandwidth plays an important part in networking, as it defines not only the speed in which data moves from one location to another, but also the overall capacity of the network connection.

Bandwidth can be likened to a pipeline supplying a building with water. The pipe has a maximum flow capacity defined by the water source and by the size of the pipe installed. Thus, there is no way that water flow can be increased beyond the line's maximum capacity. The same thing happens in a network: data transfer rate is limited by both the ISP (i.e., subscription), and the capacity of the cable/circuit.

Bandwidth in VoIP terms

Using the same water pipe analogy, let's say we are installing an indoor pool inside the building. Naturally, the existing water pipeline will not be adequate to supply water to the pool, since the capacity of the pipe was intended only for the original needs of the building. It is thus necessary to either redesign the existing pipeline or install a separate line to bring water for the indoor pool. This is exactly what happens when VoIP is added to an existing network - sometimes, it requires either increasing the bandwidth or perhaps even allotting a separate line for it.

VoIP, like the pool, can be an extremely voracious application. It requires a lot of bandwidth in the same way that the pool requires a lot of water. In both cases, we can make do with the existing setups in a worst case scenario, but that might entail sacrificing other users: water supply in lavatory faucets may be reduced to a trickle while we fill-up the pool, and downloading files or browsing webpages may become very slow when a VoIP call is underway.

Using more bandwidth

A regular PSTN call normally consumes just over 64 Kbps of bandwidth, so that a 1.5 Mbps dedicated circuit (called T1 or DS-1 circuit) could be used for 24 consecutive calls. VoIP, on the other hand, requires more bandwidth overhead due to the packetizing it must do, so the same call would consume more than 120 Kbps in uncompressed VoIP, and the same DS-1 circuit could only be used for 13 calls.

Fortunately, VoIP allows compression of the media (the voice part converted to digital form using VoIP codecs). The most basic compression available allows twice the number of uncompressed consecutive calls to be sent using the same DS-1 line.

Managing bandwidth

While it is not possible to determine accurately the bandwidth needed and actually used by each hardware or software in a VoIP network, a number of tools are available for measuring network throughput. For local networks, benchmarking tools like netperf and tccp are useful in measuring TCP and UDP performance between two workstations. There are also network speed/bandwidth tests available online, that are useful in assessing network throughput.

But even with these tools, precise measurement of bandwidth utilization is still not possible. Factors such as hardware configurations, software specifications and latency are dynamically changing all the time, making it impossible to gauge throughput accurately, particularly in an environment with a lot of VoIP activity.

Saiju is an IP communications and business software expert. He actively promotes great hosted business VoIP and hosted IP PBX solutions.

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