July 11, 2019
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All You Need to Know About VoIP – The New Age of Telephony
By Manhattan Tech Support
The traditional landline telephone system is being quickly replaced by Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephony. But what exactly is VoIP, and what can it do for your business?
VoIP is a technology that sends telephone calls over the same Internet connection your business uses to send email and web traffic. In recent years, VoIP has been experiencing explosive growth.
Analysts predict there were 1 billion VoIP users in 2018.[i]
The total size of the VoIP market will reach $99 billion in 2025.[ii]
VoIP, the “New Technology” With a 30 Year History
VoIP has not been in widespread use for very long. However, it’s been steadily growing in popularity since it was first commercialized in the early 90s. Here’s a brief summary of how VoIP came to be a viable alternative to the traditional telephone.
- 1991: John Walker and Brian Wiles write a compression scheme that reduces the bandwidth needed to transmit voice data from 64 Kb/s to 32 Kb/s. They release the program to the public domain under the name NetFone.
- 1995: VocalTec patents a VoIP transceiver, the first company to market a commercial VoIP product.
- 1998: Windows 98 provides a stronger foundation for VoIP service, allowing for easy conversion between digital and analog signals. This allows VoIP calls to travel across Public Switched Telephone Networks (PSTNs). Still, VoIP calls account for less than 1% of all voice calls.
- 2003: Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis found Skyper, later shortened to Skype. The service charges for calls to the PTSN and is the first commercial VoIP service to popularize video calling.
- 2004: Vonage appears on shelves in Circuit City, and soon has 2 million users.
- 2005: Calypso Wireless markets the first mobile phone with WIFI connectivity, allowing VoIP calling and real-time video conferencing.
- 2012: Hosted VoIP services grow 17% over the year before, and Session Internet Protocol (SIP) trunking, a protocol for provisioning VoIP services, makes massive inroads, growing 83% from
- 2011 to 2012. The global VoIP market hits $63 billion.
- 2016: Total VoIP traffic reaches a new high of 158 petabytes a month
- 2020: VoIP is projected to have approximately 2 billion subscribers worldwide by 2020.
How Does VoIP Work?
There are several important elements of a VoIP network. The good news is that you might have already purchased some (or even most) of the network hardware you need to deploy VoIP in your company. Here’s what a VoIP system looks like.
Easy Collaboration Makes Your Business More Agile
Businesses today require staff members to be increasingly available and collaborative. At the same time, the trend toward remote work arrangements continues to grow.
Did you know that 80% to 90% of the US workforce says they would like to telework at least part-time?[i]
Studies show that even employees who aren’t working remotely spend 50-60% of their work time away from their desk.[ii]
Several VoIP features help increases mobility.
- A Single Number to Ring Multiple Devices
VoIP systems allow you to ring a person’s mobile and desk phone with a single call, helping to eliminate efficiency-killing games of phone tag. - A Unified Number for Outgoing Calls
Any call placed from your VoIP system will appear as if it’s originating from inside your office, presenting a uniform, professional company image.
Fact: VoIP saves an average of 32 minutes per employee, per day because it enables staff to reach one another on the first try.
Prospects and Clients Get Better Access to Your Team
Are your staff members ready to answer sales calls, even when they’re away from their desks or on the road?
A recent Google study revealed that around 70 percent of mobile users click the “call” feature from their smartphones when they search for a business. VoIP can help ensure that each of these calls gets routed to the right person.
Providing clients with reliable access to your people has a direct, positive impact on your bottom line. A separate study by InsideSales shows that 50% of buyers go with the vendor that responds to them first. By helping you quickly respond to prospects and clients, VoIP provides you with a competitive advantage, regular phones can’t.
More Functions and Lower Costs
You’d think that a tool this great would cost a lot of money, but it’s not true. VoIP technology usually ends up saving businesses money. Here’s how that happens.
- Reduced Maintenance Costs
With only one network to maintain, you eliminate all the costs associated with traditional phone systems, such as PBX hardware costs, setup fees, and high phone company support charges. - Eliminate Long Distance Fees
VoIP doesn’t just lower long-distance charges; in many cases, it eliminates them completely. VoIP services also offer international calling for a drastically reduced price when compared to traditional phones. - Rich Features at No Extra Cost
The majority of VoIP services come packed with features that you’d otherwise pay a premium for – such as call recording, voicemail to email functionality, conference bridging, and others.
Fact: Businesses that implement VoIP often see between 50% and 75% cost reduction in their telephone services.
Fact: Small businesses that employ VoIP can save 40% on their long-distance costs, and 90% on their international phone bills.
Trouble Free VoIP Relies on Quality of Service (QoS)
Just because VoIP runs on the same network as your day to day computing doesn’t mean all VoIP systems are created equal. In the past, VoIP deployments commonly experienced problems like dropped calls, jitters, and poor audio quality.
Today, with the right high-speed telecommunications infrastructure and VoIP partner, these issues can be eliminated. Here are some of the networking techniques that a technology partner like Manhattan Tech Support can use to ensure high call quality.
- Prioritizing VoIP Data
An experienced network engineer will know how to prioritize VoIP traffic in your network, so that call quality isn’t adversely affected by other network services. - Policy-Based Routing
Dividing your network into Virtual Local Area Networks (VLANs) is another way to dynamically distribute bandwidth and ensure VoIP services get the resources they need. - Physical Network Separation
For businesses that want to ensure absolute VoIP call quality, the answer is often a dedicated Internet connection and network device to move VoIP traffic to individual users.
VoIP and Network Expertise That’s Recognized Throughout NYC
Are you ready to revolutionize your business with more powerful, lower-cost telephony, but don’t know where to start? The solutions experts at Manhattan Tech Support have decades of experience managing computer networks and can help you step confidently into the age of VoIP.
- Recognized VoIP Expertise
Our engineering team has been deploying VoIP solutions at businesses in the five boroughs of NYC since the technology first became viable. That experience means a fast, efficient transition to VoIP for your business or organization. - World-Class Network Engineering
We’re not just another VoIP provider – we’re a trusted technology partner that provides dependable network and telecommunications management services too. A single point of contact for your entire computer network and VoIP system means deep integration and reliable quality are just one phone call away.
If you’d like to find out more about VoIP and what it can do for your business, contact us anytime! Our team is always happy to answer questions and get businesses started on their road to better telephony.
| Email: [email-address] | Phone: 212-299-7673 |
Sources:
(i) https://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/why-are-one-billion-people-using-voip-in-2017-2017-06-27
(ii) https://www.marketwatch.com/press-release/at-31-cagr-voip-market-size-is-expected-to-exhibit-99000-million-usd-by-2025-2019-04-08
(iii) https://getvoip.com/blog/2014/01/27/history-of-voip-and-internet-telephones/
(v) https://globalworkplaceanalytics.com/telecommuting-statistics
(vi) https://globalworkplaceanalytics.com/telecommuting-statistics
