A Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is the process of taking analogue audio signals (traditional phone call) and converting them to digital signals that can be transmitted over the Internet.
A VoIP telephone solution is very similar to a computer network. Both use the network cabling installed in the office or a wireless service over DECT phones, both have network IP address, both can be monitored, checked and updated remotely or on a Managed Service day.
In a similar fashion a Voice over IP (VoIP) phone system could be deployed to provide a telephone system spanning multiple sites including home office sites. Each phone whether at the office or a home office location (with a broadband connection) would be an extension of the network and calls between all these phones would be free. Calls made from the home office location would be routed out over the office system using lower cost IP call charges.
All outgoing calls are normally over SIP trunk (VoIP), which are at a cheaper rate especially overseas calls. All call charges including home office phones can be on the one company bill i.e. there would be no business home phone charges.
Installing a VoIP Telephone system enables clients to reduce the number of BT telephone lines thus making an ongoing savings on line rental.
Modern telephone solutions and computer network solutions are no longer regarded as separate items. Both share the same network cabling, both have central control unit(s) and voicemail is generally stored on network hardware.
The main benefits of a VoIP phone system is flexibility and ease of use. The system is feature rich and all programming is done through a web interface (like computer network equipment). This doesn’t require expensive maintenance contracts to program or maintain the system.
All IP phones whether in the office or at a home office can be an extension of the network with free calls between the phones i.e. between the office and home extensions including conference calling. Voicemail can be stored or sent as “.wav” email attachments to the recipient, which can be listened to on a mobile device such as a BlackBerry
The main benefits of a VoIP telephone system are its features but there are operational savings to be made for example, to have up to eight concurrent calls would require either eight analogue lines or four ISDN 2 lines but these could be replaced by one ADSL connection and a SIP licence.