VoIP: Not Just Another Buzzword
There may not be an industry that is more exciting than Information Technology in its ability to bring new products to market. Explaining them is often a different matter. It might be hard to find an industry that does a worse job of explaining new products or helping people understand the advances.
Take Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) for example. Other than being an odd-sounding acronym that is getting a lot of attention, it could be argued that the facts necessary to make informed business decisions are in short supply.
VoIP is the long-awaited convergence of telephone and data communications. By using the same technology employed in internet and email traffic to digitize and transport voice, VoIP brings advantages – and some drawbacks – to the traditional world of telephone communication.
The obvious advantage that everyone thinks of first is the big reduction in the expense of long distance calling. When an Internet user can access a server in Silicon Valley from their office in Bloomington, Indiana over phone lines without a long distance charge, why can’t the same thing be done with voice?
By digitizing and transporting voice over the internet, long distance is practical and affordable. Very affordable. In fact, it’s free. Calls outside the United States are still subject to charges, but a few companies - TLS.NET is one of them - include free calling to Canada along with free U.S. domestic calls. Perhaps all international calls will be free someday, but for the time being it looks as though people will have to settle for free long distance throughout the United States and Canada.
The second advantage comes in the efficiencies that businesses depend upon to improve their bottom line. Instead of paying for a dozen phone lines in a small business – where perhaps six phones are in use at any given time - and having a DSL connection that you wish was a little faster, VoIP efficiency allows the installation of a T1 connection that serves both needs at a cost that is comparable. The T1 brings better speed and reliability than DSL for Internet access and also supports the efficient deployment of voice telephone service.
In fact, most often, the T1 expense is actually lower than the combined expenses of existing phone lines plus Internet access plus long distance charges.
To all of that, add features. Most importantly, add features that you control. All the voice mail, call-forwarding, call-conference, call transfer features that you’ve come to depend on are, of course, included. But, so are call rejection, call trace, call return, ID blocking, and do-not-disturb. Each feature is user-activated, user-modified, and user-controlled, without placing a call to the phone company, so changes can be made on your timetable to suit your needs.
Finally, consider mobility. For businesses with branch locations or sales representatives, VoIP provides the seamless ability to travel and take a local phone number with them. In fact, it’s often as easy as plugging a headset into a laptop computer. Calls to and from airports, hotels, and remote locations now have a local number availability.
It doesn’t take long for the benefits to stack up.
But, in fairness, we said that there are disadvantages and there are.
One issue that is receiving a lot of publicity, is 911 Emergency Service. Currently, VoIP does not consistently register with an accurate physical address because the Internet technology means that the phone, like the laptop computer we just talked about, can be mobile. Thinking of VoIP 911 in the same terms as Cellular 911 offers a good analogy. In an emergency, you’d need to give the operator location information when you place the call because the 911 service might not be able to pinpoint the spot.
Currently, Congress has mandated changes to address this serious issue. 911 service providers and telephone companies will be required to open their records and VoIP providers will be required to conform to a set of data reporting standards.
Another drawback is the availability of power. If electric service fails, VoIP phones stop working just like computers and fax machines. Clearly, as clients convert to VoIP service, an investment in a battery backup is a recommended be part of the conversion plan.
As we said out the outset of this article, technology has brought another communication advancement in VoIP. But unless the advancement comes with information, people will only know a funny sounding word and not the value.
