VoIP for Business: Stability vs. Savings
Monday, April 20, 2009
How can VoIP save your business money?
You want to or already have deployed a VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) capable phone system for your business, but where are the monthly cost savings, VoIP? You’ve seen some savings by reusing your existing company infrastructure, like network wiring, and you’ve seen a boost in productivity because of all the features that can come with VoIP, and specifically an IP PBX, but do you really need to entrust your voice to the wild west of the Internet to see any real impact on your monthly bill? We’ll explore ways to get the most out of an IP PBX (Internet Protocol Private Branch eXchange) deployment so that your calls are as cheap and as reliable as you are willing to make them. And we’ll look at ways to help you decide how much risk your company can tolerate in the name of slashing phone bills.
Wait, but isn’t VoIP free?
Not exactly, no. If you make a call using VoIP to another user of the same VoIP network, then yes, this call could potentially be free. This is really dependent on what the owner of that network has decided for their policy. If the owner of the network is you, as in the case of multiple IP PBX systems joined together, then yes, those calls are free.
So what are you paying for then?
If you’re not calling another VoIP user, like in the case where a VoIP call is made to a cell phone, somewhere, somehow, that call needs to jump out of the VoIP network and “terminate” into the PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network). That’s the service you’re paying for when you’re paying for VoIP service.
The main reason that your phone calls are less expensive when using a VoIP provider is because they’re sending your call as far as they can with VoIP, and only sending it as short a distance as they can out on the PSTN. In other words, they’re saving by not sending the call long distance either.
An ITSP (Internet Telephony Service Provider) with many termination points all around the world can have rates well below a traditional carrier for this reason. Take, for example, a call you want to make from Los Angeles to someone’s regular home phone in Paris. If the VoIP carrier you’re using has a termination point in Paris, you’re in luck and the call will travel across the distance just like any other internet traffic (like if you sent an e-mail to someone in Paris), and then when it needs to go from that termination point in a data center out to the PSTN network in Paris, its just a local call, and therefore, cheap!
But all this goes out the window when you consider that most ITSPs are actually just reselling a larger, wholesale carrier’s minutes. So shopping for an ITSP can just come down to shopping for the lowest rates. But buyer beware! Just like anything else, you tend to get what you pay for. There are definitely bargains to be had, but it’s important to know if the carrier you’re researching is reselling someone else’s minutes or if they actually have their own network. It may be better if they’re reselling a larger carrier’s minutes because that large company has a lot of infrastructure, presence worldwide, and support staff. On the other hand, you will get some frustrating answers from ITSPs that don’t own their own network if they’re experiencing an outage. Basically, there’s not much they can do about it. So if you are going to choose to go with a provider that resells rather than owns their own network, the best bet is to choose a carrier that resells several larger carriers’ minutes, instead of depending on just one.
Big Impact: Routing Calls Wisely
The whole goal here is to explore how routing your business calls through the right channels can impact your bottom line, without forcing you to jump into VoIP “head first” at the outset. VoIP may be cheap, but it’s typically no more reliable than the internet, so balancing with PSTN calls would be the wise deployment, due to the government regulations placed on our old telephone network.
Contact .e4 Today- Our trained team of VoIP solutions Consultants are standing by to help you make an educated decision:
By Phone: 877-434-8647
by Email: info@e4strategies.com
LIVE CHAT: CLICK HERE!
You want to or already have deployed a VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) capable phone system for your business, but where are the monthly cost savings, VoIP? You’ve seen some savings by reusing your existing company infrastructure, like network wiring, and you’ve seen a boost in productivity because of all the features that can come with VoIP, and specifically an IP PBX, but do you really need to entrust your voice to the wild west of the Internet to see any real impact on your monthly bill? We’ll explore ways to get the most out of an IP PBX (Internet Protocol Private Branch eXchange) deployment so that your calls are as cheap and as reliable as you are willing to make them. And we’ll look at ways to help you decide how much risk your company can tolerate in the name of slashing phone bills.
Wait, but isn’t VoIP free?
Not exactly, no. If you make a call using VoIP to another user of the same VoIP network, then yes, this call could potentially be free. This is really dependent on what the owner of that network has decided for their policy. If the owner of the network is you, as in the case of multiple IP PBX systems joined together, then yes, those calls are free.
So what are you paying for then?
If you’re not calling another VoIP user, like in the case where a VoIP call is made to a cell phone, somewhere, somehow, that call needs to jump out of the VoIP network and “terminate” into the PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network). That’s the service you’re paying for when you’re paying for VoIP service.
The main reason that your phone calls are less expensive when using a VoIP provider is because they’re sending your call as far as they can with VoIP, and only sending it as short a distance as they can out on the PSTN. In other words, they’re saving by not sending the call long distance either.
An ITSP (Internet Telephony Service Provider) with many termination points all around the world can have rates well below a traditional carrier for this reason. Take, for example, a call you want to make from Los Angeles to someone’s regular home phone in Paris. If the VoIP carrier you’re using has a termination point in Paris, you’re in luck and the call will travel across the distance just like any other internet traffic (like if you sent an e-mail to someone in Paris), and then when it needs to go from that termination point in a data center out to the PSTN network in Paris, its just a local call, and therefore, cheap!
But all this goes out the window when you consider that most ITSPs are actually just reselling a larger, wholesale carrier’s minutes. So shopping for an ITSP can just come down to shopping for the lowest rates. But buyer beware! Just like anything else, you tend to get what you pay for. There are definitely bargains to be had, but it’s important to know if the carrier you’re researching is reselling someone else’s minutes or if they actually have their own network. It may be better if they’re reselling a larger carrier’s minutes because that large company has a lot of infrastructure, presence worldwide, and support staff. On the other hand, you will get some frustrating answers from ITSPs that don’t own their own network if they’re experiencing an outage. Basically, there’s not much they can do about it. So if you are going to choose to go with a provider that resells rather than owns their own network, the best bet is to choose a carrier that resells several larger carriers’ minutes, instead of depending on just one.
Big Impact: Routing Calls Wisely
The whole goal here is to explore how routing your business calls through the right channels can impact your bottom line, without forcing you to jump into VoIP “head first” at the outset. VoIP may be cheap, but it’s typically no more reliable than the internet, so balancing with PSTN calls would be the wise deployment, due to the government regulations placed on our old telephone network.
Contact .e4 Today- Our trained team of VoIP solutions Consultants are standing by to help you make an educated decision:
By Phone: 877-434-8647
by Email: info@e4strategies.com
LIVE CHAT: CLICK HERE!