Computer Software

Business communications has always been a challenging arena for management….subject to cost, function, reliability, and other pressures and concerns. The emergence of VoIP technology….and specificly application to PBX systems via IP based protocols….has provided an enormous opportunity for companies to reap many benefits.

Many companies today have multiple office locations around the country or around the world. Currently, each office uses its own PBX system and inter-office phone calls are routed through the PSTN and charged long distance and international rates by carriers. Most companies also employ workers on a part time basis who work from their homes. Those workers get reimbursed for telecommunication expenses they incur while performing their duties. It just makes business sense for companies to explore alternatives to consolidate their telecommunication systems and reduce costs.

The answer…..purchase a Voice-over-IP enabled PBX system and deploy it in a Virtual Office setup.

Voice-over-IP (VoIP) is a fairly new technology for transporting voice calls over the Internet which allows users to realize substantial cost savings on long distance and international calls. Besides cost effectiveness, VoIP enabled PBX systems (or IP PBX) offer easy integration with existing telecommunications systems and are characterized with low operating costs as their upgrade is done through software updates rather than more expensive hardware replacement. Additionally, the technology simplifies the communication infrastructure (no need for separate voice and data cables) while offering high scalability.

Virtual Office models are used by companies that want to consolidate their communications, reduce costs and achieve more cohesive corporate images. To implement the model, a company has to install a single IP PBX system in its headquarters and distribute to employees IP phones or regular phones with VoIP adapters. Employees can make intra-office and inter-office phone calls through dialing PBX extensions. Such calls are routed through the Internet and are practically free. Company customers, on the other side, can dial a single inbound number plus extensions in order to reach the company’s employees. The latter receive the calls on their IP/Regular Phones at any location in the world with Internet connectivity.

So what kind of a VoIP PBX solution does your business need? – a turnkey Virtual Office solution that could be customized to meet your company specific needs.

My recommendation for this solution is the highly acclaimed package from Packet8. Recently thes Packet8 Virtual Office solution for small and medium sized businesses received Network Computing magazine’s Editor’s Choice award over competitive offerings from Covad Communications and Velocity Networks. That’s some pretty stiff competition….and says a lot about Packet8′s performance. The Packet8 Virtual Office solution received the highest overall rating for its rich feature set, call management tools and low subscription price.

The Packet8 Virtual Office is a cost-effective, easy-to-use alternative to traditional PBX systems that allows users anywhere in the world to be part of a VoIP-hosted virtual phone system that includes auto attendants, conference bridges, extension-to-extension dialing, business class voicemail and ring groups, in addition to a rich variety of other business telephone features normally found on high-end, premise based PBX systems. Their Virtual Office reduces an organization’s telecommunications total cost of ownership (TCO) with a minimal initial investment combined with unlimited local and long distance business calling throughout the United States and Canada and Packet8′s low international rates.

Now…..here’s an overview of what to look for when making the business case for investment in VoIP technology for a VoIP PBX solution:

* Ways to save money for corporations…..

- Eliminate or reduce intra-office toll charges

- Avoiding service and support contracts on existing PBX hardware

- Eliminate the need for on-going Centrex services — and charges

- Reduce expansion costs via lower costs for adds, moves and changes; lower user hardware costs

- Reduce the on-going costs for separate voice messaging systems

- Provide productivity benefits for remote and traveling workers who can be empowered with the same integrated capabilities as office workers

- Reduce user training and learning on phone and messaging systems

- Cost-effectively implement unified messaging

- Improve security

- Reduce systems downtime and improve performance

Additional benefits for call centers…..

- Virtualize call centers, allowing more flexibility in the center’s configuration….either helping consolidation efforts, or providing enterprise capabilities to telecommuting call center workers

- Improve customer support services and reduce abandoned calls and call times

- Improve customer satisfaction and reduce customer turnover via improved call center services

Cost considerations….

- VoIP telecommunication hardware and software

- IP phone sets or soft phones

- Network upgrades for possible quality of service and performance upgrades

- Implementation labor and professional services

- On-going support and administration labor

- Support and maintenance contracts

- Increased support calls and potential user downtime losses on initial deployment

- IT Training

- User Training

- Write-off, write-down and disposal costs for existing telecommunication assets

Potential project risks……

- Quality of service/performance

- User training and adoption

- Administration and support skill levels and resources

- Proprietary vs. open systems interoperability

How Does The Solution Work?

Inter/Intra office calls…….

Caller A, who is located in the corporate headquarters, wants to make a call to Caller B, who is located in the corporate headquarters or in any of the company’s offices worldwide.

Caller A picks up his VoIP device (IP phone, phone with adapter or softphone) and dials Caller B’s extension.

The VoIP PBX server searches its internal database and obtains call routing information about Caller B The VoIP PBX server routes the call to Caller B’s VoIP device.

If the destination number is unreachable, the system forwards the call to Caller B’s voicemail.

As soon as Caller B picks up his VoIP device the conversation starts.

During conversation Caller A’s VoIP device convert voice to digital packets and send them to Caller B’s VoIP device and vice versa.

Both A and B can use traditional PBX functionality, like call on hold, caller ID, call forward, etc. Calls are free

Outbound calls…….

Caller A, who is located in the corporate headquarters, wants to make a call
to Caller B, who is a company customer.

Caller A picks up his VoIP device (IP phone, phone with adapter or softphone) and dials the customer’s number.

The VoIP PBX server searches its internal database and obtains call routing
information about the VoIP carrier, who should terminate calls to Caller B’s area code.

The call is routed to the VoIP carrier.

The VoIP carrier terminates the call to Caller’s B number over the PSTN.

During conversation, Caller A can use traditional PBX functionality, like call on hold, caller ID, call forward, etc.

Calls are charged on time basis at pre-negotiated rates with the VoIP carrier

Inbound calls…..

Caller A, who is a company customer, wants to make a call to Caller B, who is a company employee.

Caller A picks up his phone and dials the company’s central access number.

The VoIP PBX server prompts the caller to enter an extension.

Caller A dials Caller B’s extension.

The VoIP PBX server searches its internal database and obtains call routing information about Caller B.

The VoIP PBX server routes the call to Caller B’s VoIP device.

During conversation, Caller B can use traditional PBX functionality, like call on hold, caller ID, call forward, etc.

Calls are either free if the company uses a local access number or charged on a time basis if the company uses a toll free one.

Voice over IP (VoIP) technologies carry great promise to reduce telecommunication and networking total cost of ownership while empowering businesses with new capabilities and agility. When making your decision on deploying a Virtual Office VoIP PBX solution consider the strategic and tangible benefits as well as the costs and risks outlined above. If it all seems too overwhelming seek out the assistance of an unbiased independent advisor such as Business-VoIP-Solution.com.

The buzz for this new phone system technology is reaching a fever pitch yet, many people still have limited knowledge. There are many terms that you need to understand when searching for a VoIP provider so that you may take advantage of this low cost technology. I am going to list them here.

AS – A group of networks under mutual administration that share the same routing methodology. An AS uses an internal gateway protocol and common metrics to route Packets within the AS, and uses an external gateway protocol to route packets to other AS.

ASP (Application Service Provider)
An independent, third-party provider of software-based services delivered to customers across a wide area network (WAN).

ATA – Analog Telephone Adapter A device that connects between an analog telephone and an Internet connection port, and allows you to use a standard phone to make and receive VoIP calls over the Internet.

Average Hold Time – The average length of time between the moment a caller finishes dialing and the moment the call is answered or terminated

Bandwidth The maximum data carrying capacity of a transmission link. For networks, bandwidth is usually expressed in bits per second (bps).

Broadband
Descriptive term for evolving digital technology that provides consumers a single switch facility offering integrated access to voice, high-speed data service, video demand services, and interactive delivery services.

Codec – Short for coder/decoder, a piece of hardware or software that automatically encodes/compresses and decodes/decompresses voice signal data packets. A codec is used to minimize bandwith usage while preserving voice quality. Although many proprietary compression schemes exist, VoIP networks typically incorporate at least one of several standardized audio CODECs for the sake of interoperability.

Compression
compression is used at anywhere from 1:1 to 12:1 ratios in VOIP applications to consume less bandwidth and leave more for data or other voice/fax communications. The voice quality may decrease with increased compression ratios.

Find-me/Follow-me Lying at the heart of the “unified messaging” or “ubiquitous communication” concept, Find me/Follow me is a feature that routes incoming calls to a user no matter where he or she roams or what type of device is being used (home, business or mobile phone). This “presence” feature, which rings multiple phones simultaneously, is offered by many IP PBXs and some hosted services. The feature is typically activated by pressing a softkey.

Firewall
A system designed to prevent unauthorized access to or from a private network. Firewalls can be implemented as hardware, software, or a combination of both. All messages entering or leaving the intranet pass through the firewall, which examines each message and blocks those that do not meet the security criteria specified on the firewall.

FXO – Foreign Exchange Office. A device that connects with a Central Office (CO) or PSTN analog line.

FXS – Foreign Exchange Station. A device that connects with an “end-user” device such as a telephone or fax machine.

Gatekeeper – The central control entity that performs management functions in a Voice and Fax over IP network and for multimedia applications such as video conferencing. Gatekeepers provide intelligence for the network, including address resolution, authorization, and authentication services, the logging of Call Detail Records, and communications with network management systems.

Gatekeepers control bandwidth, provide interfaces to existing legacy systems, and monitor the network for engineering purposes as well as for real-time network management and load balancing, .
Internet Telephony – Any method of transmitting voice over the internet. A multimedia PC with special client software will digitalize your voice.

IP PBX – IP Private Branch Exchange. A business phone system that offers advanced phone services between VoIP and PSTN networks, such as music-on-hold, automatic call-routing, voicemail, and call transfer.

IP phone – also called an Internet phone or broadband phone. An IP phone plugs into a broadband Internet connection to make and receive VoIP calls over the Internet.

Packet – A logically grouped unit of data. These packets of data are distributed over the internet, and then are de-constructed to voice when they reach their destination.

PSTN – Public-Switched Telephone Network, is the commonly-known telephone network. PSTN is a circuit-switched network.

PSTN Failover – an optional port on an IP phone or ATA device that connects to the PSTN network in case your Internet connection or electrical power goes down. This configuration requires you to have a regular telephone line and service.

Route – A set of parameters predefined by Voip provider to facilitate routing of traffic between the Gateways/Gatekeepers controlled by a Voip provider Member either via ownership or via a partnership with the owner. Along with specifying other parameters, a Voip provider Member using the Gatekeeping Service assigns to a Route values specifying the details of both originating and terminating Gateways/Gatekeepers.

SIP – Session Initiation Protocol. One of the newer, more common signaling protocols used for VoIP.

Softphone – a “software” phone on a PC that can send and receive calls over the Internet.

VoIP – Voice over Internet Protocol, which is a technology that allows you to make and receive phone calls and faxes over the Internet instead of through the telephone or cellular network.

VoIP Gateway – device that converts analog voice signals to digital IP packets for communication over an Ethernet (LAN or WAN) network.

VSP – VoIP Service Provider

In order to use VoIP, both sender and receiver need to have a broadband connection. This is a high-speed Internet connection usually provided by cable or a DSL modem. Broadband modems are usually used to connect computers to the Internet, but in the case of VoIP, computers are not necessary, because now there are telephones that connect directly.

Calls to all destinations worldwide for free via internet – without computer

While the flagship of the TerraSip VoIP product palette, the Starphone, previously went over the virtual store counter for 89 Euro, it is now available for a thrifty 59 Euro, beginning immediately.
With this, TerraSip is reacting to an increased demand. “The Starphone is so interesting because it offers a diversity of functions like no other comparable product on the market and provides comfortable internet telephony without requiring a computer or software.” says Daniel David, responsible for products and purchasing for the company.

Low Initial Investment
Alongside the remarkable design, the SIP phone offers a large foldable display, an alphabetic keyboard and open standards. It supports all current protocols and is delivered already pre-configured. This comfort as well as the low price makes entering VoIP telephony palatable, through which regular telephone fees can sink up to 90%.

No Contract Obligations
The requirements for the operation of a Sip phone are a broadband internet connection, such as DSL, as well as a router, to which the Starphone is connected with a network cable. The Sip account, which makes dialing via the internet possible, is provided by TerraSip free of charge. Interested users can register on the webpage www.terrasip.com, completely without any contractual obligation.

Calls to other networks worldwide from only 1.4 cents per minute
Calling other TerraSip members is free, with low fees for conversations using other networks. One minute throughout all of Europe or the USA, as well as many countries in Asia and Africa only costs 1.4 cents, with a national tariff available beginning at 1 cent.

Information about the provider
TerraSip is a young, globally oriented Service Provider operating worldwide. It offers free internet telephony via the international SIP standard for members.
TerraSip’s focus is mobile internet telephony, Voice over WLAN, or VoWLAN. TerraSip will present its first pilot project concerning mobile Internet Telephony in Germany in spring 2006.

Following the arrival of VoIP, or Voice Over Internet Protocol, the internet techies have been raving about it, and it is now one of the hottest new technologies around, but what is it and why is it talked about so much?

Well let’s begin with what VoIP is. In short, it allows you to make phone calls over the internet using your broadband connection, but has many benefits:

- You can make phone calls from virtually anywhere in the world to anywhere else using your computer.

- Depending on the speed of your connection, you are able to make several calls at the same time.

- If you move home, you are able to keep your same number, even if you move from one side of the world to the other. As you do not have an actual land line, but a converter that has a number assigned, as long as keep the converter with you, you can plug it into any broadband connection and immediately utilize your usual number for making and receiving calls.

Another benefit of VoIP, which many will find useful, and be an attractive feature for many businesses, is the ability to connect to your office phone, whether it be from a hotel or from home. This will enable company personnel to work out of the office, but still have access to all of the office phone system features.

VoIP can also be very cost effective, especially when making long-distance calls. This factor has meant that telephone service providers have to compete with VoIP, in turn ensuring pricing is much more competitive.

At the beginning, the voice quality for those using VoIP was not as good as with a traditional phone line. However the continual technological advancements have meant that the difference in quality is now not as apparent.

So how does it work?

To begin with your voice is converted into bytes so that it can be compressed, split it into packets, and transmitted over the internet. These packets, which contain a collection of information, including the origin, timestamp, and intended destination of the packet, is then converted at the receivers end so that your voice is recognised.

There are many that are already abandoning existing telephone networks and solely using VoIP. For a wealth of information on VoIP take a look at http://www.voip-serviceproviders.info.

Vonage is one of the leading providers of commercial and residential VoIP telephony. In a short span of three years, it has acquired more than a million customers for this recent communications technology. The company is based in Holmdel, New Jersey and offers quality-rich features as a part of its VoIP offering to customers. Customers throughout the United States can avail Vonage services; Vonage started its Canada and UK services in 2004 and 2005, respectively.

In order to make use of the services provided by Vonage, customers need a broadband internet connection and a good quality VoIP router or adapter. Vonage is different from IM-based VoIP services such as Skype as it offers greater ease of use and a greater selection of plans. A number of monthly packages are offered by Vonage; these include fixed minutes as well as unlimited use. The minutes allotted can be used for communicating with anyone in the U.S.; long-distance charges are applied for international calls. These charges are far less than those charged when using traditional telephony. Vonage offers a 14-day or a 30-day money-back trial period for customers to test the features and quality of VoIP service provided by Vonage.

Vonage subscribers are provided with a regular telephone number that can be used from anywhere in the world. Subscribers are free to choose an area code different from that of the place where they are located. For a small monthly fee, subscribers can obtain virtual numbers. The concept of virtual numbers helps subscribers, especially if they are businesses with a global network, to save on communication costs. If a US-telephone number is used from outside the US for making a call to the US, it incurs only local charges. However, all area codes in the US are not covered by Vonage; therefore prospective subscribers should check for number availability before deciding on Vonage.

Vonage is one of the few VoIP companies that provide a package which is a complete fully functional replacement for land lines. Vonage provides its subscribers with an extensive set of features including 911, call forwarding, 3-way calling, free in-network calling, call waiting, and voice mail at a fraction of the cost as compared to traditional telephony. Vonage makes use of SIP, which is a robust open source protocol, for its software.

Subscribers are not required to connect a computer to the Internet for using the Vonage phone service, as the company provides handsets. Moreover, unlike other VoIP services, Vonage does not charge extra for calls between the Vonage network and landlines. Vonage is ideal for those who need to make regular long-distance calls, since it works just like a regular telephone; it suits people who are not comfortable in making calls through a computer.

The flip side of subscribing to Vonage is that the cost, although lower than traditional telephony, is much higher as compared to other VoIP services. However, the cost is offset to a large extent by the services offered and voice quality. Also, since the phone number of a subscriber may not correspond to his actual location, implementing 911
is not easy. Vonage runs its own emergency telephone number service, which requires that subscribers provide the residential address to Vonage.

Have you heard that you can make phone calls over the internet cheaply? Have you had a chance to try it? Most people that have had a chance to try it have experienced hit or miss quality, dropped calls as well as some speech delays. But there are some steps that you can take to really improve the quality and consistency of you VoIP calls over your internet Connection.

There is a lot of buzz these days around Internet based communication, VoIP, replacing regular/traditional telephone service. Much of the buzz has been created by/around a company called Vonage, who’s motto is “Leading the Internet Phone Revolution”.

Even if you do not have a broadband connection, you can still save a fortune by using VOIP service for long distance calls. A broadband connection will give you more consistent, reliable call quality, but similar results can be obtained using a dial up account if some guidelines are followed.

All VoIP service providers are different, they do not all support dial-up users. Companies such as Vonage happens to be one that backs away from dial up connections. The providers that do support dial up usually only support dial-up above certain speeds. The two most popular companies that do support dial up VoIP are Callserve and Go2Call.

If you close programs that are running in the background, you will get higher call quality. If you are using windows, just right click & close all open non-essential applications that are shown in your taskbar at the bottom right of your screen. If you are using windows XP & there are other users logged on, be sure they log off before trying to make a call.

You also need to be conscience of what you are doing while you are on the call. If you overload the limited data capability your call quality will suffer. Other activities that will compete for bandwith are: Instant Messaging, checking your email, web cameras, surfing the internet or downloading anything.

Scan your system frequently for Viruses and Adware, these programs can tie up your browser and internet connection, slow down your system and affect your call quality.

Make it a habit to scan your system every month so your virus software remains uo to date. McAfee or Nortons are good programs, Spybot – Search & Detroy is good for removing spyware.

Use a headset with a boom microphone and this should eliminate annoying voice echoes often associated with VoIP phone calls. If you use a headset, voice signals are limited in volume and thus the chances of your microphone ‘re-transmitting’ those voice signals is greatly reduced.

So if you have dial up you can still enjoy the cost savings of making PC to VoIP call.

VoIP, or Voice Over Internet Protocol, is an enigma for many businesses. There are many flavors of VoIP and many pros and cons that you need to be aware of when considering which service to choose. One goal of this article is to help you decipher through the technospeak so that you can make an informed decision that will save you time and money.

The first thing you need to know about VoIP Service is that it can replace your local phone company. Whether you have just one POTS (plain old telephone service) line or a voice T1 (24 bundled dedicated lines), a VoIP solution is meant to replace your phone company. Instead of using your local phone company’s voice connection, VoIP will digitize your voice signal and send it over an internet connection.

In order for your voice to transmit digitally through the internet, you need to be sure you have enough bandwidth to facilitate the communication link. A minimum of a DSL line is required, but most larger companies will want a T1 line – a dedicated link directly to the internet that is guaranteed to be up over 99.999% of the time. Since you will be entrusting all of your business voice communication to this new technology, your connection to the internet becomes the critical link and you don’t want to risk a company-wide phone outage to save a few hundred dollars on your bandwidth connection. To help with this DS3-Bandwidth.com has developed software that will allow you to
generate a T1 or DS3 price in just seconds.

Once you have your high-speed internet connection taken care of, it’s time to select a VoIP Service Provider – the company that will actually route your digitized voice signal to a real telephone on the other end. In essence, your VoIP Carrier will become your long distance carrier. The service providers
Business-VoIP-Solution.com work with offer unlimited telephone calls to the United States and Canada, all for one fixed price. That’s a good place to start your search. For companies who average more than $40 in local and long distance usage per employee, VoIP is well worth the initial investment.

There are likewise other hidden benefits of VoIP Service, the main benefit being the reduced bandwidth required to conduct a regular telephone conversation. Since a VoIP transmission only requires 32KB of bandwidth, you can fix up to 24 ‘VoIP lines’ on a data T1, and still have 768KB left over for dedicated high-speed internet access! This means that you can migrate your entire phone system on to your existing T1 and still have half of the bandwidth allocated for data.

Other benefit of VoIP lies in the prioritization of the digitized voice signals that are generated when you speak. In the event no one is talking, the VoIP line does not transmit any data. This allows your T1 line to dynamically allocate bandwidth as it is needed, instead of permanently blocking out an entire channel of data.

Lastly, the MAJOR benefit of VoIP telephone systems is that they come with a very rich feature set. Some common features include: Unlimited Minutes, Local Number Porting (LNP), Personalized Voicemail, Unlimited In-Network Calling, Caller ID, Caller ID Blocking, Call Waiting, Call Waiting ID, Call Forwarding, 3-way Conferencing, Call Return *69 activates, Online Management & Billing, Choose Your Own Area Code, *70 Call Waiting Disable, *78/*79 Do Not Disturb, *77/*87 Anonymous Call Blocking,
Distinctive Ringing for Virtual Numbers, Virtual Phone Numbers all over the world, Enhanced 911, and Toll Free Services. You just can’t get all that service with regular phone service without paying extra fees and surcharges. These features are standard with most business VoIP plans!

The most immediate benefit of VoIP for most businesses is savings on long distance charges. Companies equipped for VoIP can place long-distance calls over the Internet rather than the PSTN and avoid paying long distance charges. Since most companies already pay for broadband Internet connections, the only additional requirement is the equipment that connects telephones to the IP network.

The so called “VoIP revolution” in telecommunications can benefit many consumers. The group who stands to gain the most….if they’re smart…are small businesses.

In addition to the cost savings, bringing voice and data together on one network opens the door to new services. Advanced conferencing, unified e-mail and voicemail messaging and dialing calls by selecting from a computer contact list are just a few of the new service possibilities.

The benefits of VoIP can go beyond free long distance calling and new services. Because VoIP integrates voice calling with the IP network, small businesses of the future will only need one network to operate, rather than separate telephone and computer networks. A single integrated network is cheaper to install and maintain, and there would only be one network service bill to pay. We recommend Packet8 service for small businesses of today…..and tomorrow.

But fully converged networks are a long way off for most small companies. Today, traditional PSTN telephony is still crucial for the vast majority of small businesses. Since most of the telephone calls for the majority of small businesses come from local callers using the traditional telephone network, small businesses need to maintain their traditional PSTN links. For those small business where VoIP doesn’t make sense yet we recommend using a “Best Rate Calculator” to optimize your PSTN usage and cost effectiveness.

To set up a business VoIP system, you need several components. A central device to manage the calls, the way a private branch exchange (PBX) or key system unit (KSU) does in traditional phone systems is one of them.

This can be a dedicated piece of hardware such as an IP PBX, a regular PBX that has been IP-enabled, or a server running specialized software. You will also need phones and a data network. In many cases, you may be able to use your existing digital phones and computer network, although you may need to upgrade some of your network hardware.

VoIP Benefit

The most prominent benefit of an IP PBX is for businesses with multiple locations. With the advantage of VoIP, all the offices on a LAN or WAN can get the profits of having a common office phone system. The profits are – extension dialing, seamless call transfers, and other features.

In addition to making it easier to communicate, this sharing of features can enhance collaboration as employees at different locations can truly feel like they are part of the same organization. Plus, if they are on the company network, the phone calls are free – even if your offices are located thousands of miles apart. It is an advantage in saving money expended on calling between two branches of the same office.

VoIP Conversations

Computer networks are designed to handle messy data: packets arrive out of order and some are even lost, but in most cases the data being sent can easily be reconstructed when it is needed. Voice conversations, though, are not as tolerant of these kinds of disturbances. Each packet of sound has to arrive in the correct order because they are being sent in real time – if packets are lost; the conversation sounds distorted, choppy, or falls off all together. This is why VoIP services that rely on the Internet to transmit calls can have uneven phone quality.

The selection of a business VoIP solution is a major decision. Voice service is critical to the operation of the business, so no one wants to implement a technology that will compromise call quality or reliability in any way. On the other hand, the cost savings and value-added functionality available with VoIP makes it a compelling investment.

LANs & WANs

The VoIP phone system is beneficial for companies having multiple locations branches, telecommuters and remote sales offices. And the locations are connected with a company’s Local Area Network (LAN) or Wide Area Network (WAN). In that case the companies are suitable for using a VoIP system.

You can share the full features of your phone system across all your locations. In addition, even if you have one office in one place and one in different place, VoIP allows calls between them via extension dialing, making it a zero cost call. For businesses with hefty monthly long distance charges due to calls between far off locations, is an attractive reason to upgrade.

VoIP Process

A VoIP phoning process requires a regular phone, an adapter, broadband Internet service, and a subscription to a VoIP service. When you place a call, it is sent over the Internet as data until it nears the recipient’s destination.

Then the call is translated back into a more traditional format and completes the trip over standard phone lines. Also known as Internet telephony, this allows for extremely cheap long-distance and international calls.

VoIP Drawbacks

The main drawback of VoIP systems is the network requirements.

In VoIP telephony the greatest challenge is the bandwidth. It requires high bandwidth for clear messaging.

It is no secret that communication is key to survival for small business. The advantage to small busineses of using a VoIP solution is that the market is very competitive. While there are relatively few companies from which to choose for normal phone service, many VoIP providers will gladly offer VoIP phone service at a very competitive rate and with unlimited long distance.

But….you need to do your homework first.

Phone service features indispensable to your business, such as voicemail, conferencing and call waiting, allow business to flow smoothly and efficiently. So….how do you decide if a VoIP solution is best for your business?

One of the first steps when analyzing your current service is to decide what features your business needs. Does it need multiple lines to accommodate the sales force? What about a toll free number for customer service? Make a list of all the features your office uses and think about others you might want to try.

The next step is to make an estimate of all intrastate (in- state), interstate (state-to-state) and international calls. An easy way to estimate these numbers is to view a recent phone bill. You might be surprised at how large or small your call volume actually is. If you rely heavily on fax machines, consider the number of incoming and outgoing faxes. As you review these numbers, remember to consult growth projections for the rest of the year.

Once you’ve done all this…you’re ready to go comparison shopping.

Here’s some resources to help you do that:

* VoIP Comparison Reviews

VoIPReview does a good job comparing feature sets from each of the providers. Its user reviews seem a bit skewed, but otherwise the site looks good.

* ZDNet Reviews

ZDNet usually has objective reviews. Read through its commentary on any of the providers you are considering.

* Broadband Reports

Broadband reports has a specific area for review by users…with a regularly updated scoring system. It’s often skewed with a tad bit of emotion….and reviews are mostly residential. But it does give you an idea for business use.

* Google

I’m sure most of you already do this, but once you’ve figured out what you’re looking for, perform a search on companies on Google to see what others have said about it.

If you’re willing to do a bit more work, contact various providers and create your own comparison chart. You can begin your research by visiting voipreview.org. The site offers VoIP facts and reviews of various broadband phone service providers. Compare the business plans for different providers and research the various features offered with each plan. Also, make sure your current Internet connection can handle VoIP calls. The Web site testyourvoip.com will evaluate and score your Internet connection. You’ll know if it makes sense to run your phone traffic over your broadband connection.

Here is a list and description of the top ten (supposedly) VoIP providers (includes home plans for telecommuter staff).

- Axvoice

Axvoice has many plans for you to sign up. Unlimited call to USA/Canada plan costs $ 18.99 per month. Unlimited international & USA/Canada plan costs $29.99. Axvoice also has business plan starting from $ 39.99 per month.

- INVIVNI

INVIVNI has three plans, Residentials, Small Office, and Business. The Residential plan costs $24.95 per month. The Small Office plan costs $32.95 per month, and the Business plan costs is negotiable.

- VCInetwork

VCInetwork has three plans, Unlimited Long Distance :Home, Unlimited Long Distance: Business and 500 minutes to USA/Canada and Europe. Unlimited Long Distance : Home plan costs $28.95 per month. Unlimited Long Distance : Business plan costs $49.95 per month and 500 minutes to USA/Canada and Europe plan costs $14.50 per month.

- Skype

Skype is famous for their slogan, “The Whole World can Talk for Free”. Skype is a free download and users can make free calls via, Skype to Skype. For a fee, you can advance your Skype to Skype Out and make calls to landline phones. Skype In will let your choose your area code and phone number. This way, friends and relatives can call you locally, if you select the same area code. Skype is compatible with Windows, Mac, Linux, and Pocket Pc operating systems. Not really a good business solution.

- Vonage

Probably the most well known VoIP providers, you may be surprised to discover that Vonage is also one of the more expensive providers. Vonage offers two plans, residential and small business. Residential users may choose between the Basic 500 plan and Unlimited. The Basic 500 plan offers 500 minutes of talk time for $14.99 a month. The Premium Unlimited residential plan costs $24.99 per month.

The Small Business Basic plan costs $39.99 per month and allows 1500 minutes. The Small Business Unlimited plan costs $49.99 a month and provides unlimited calls throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, and Canada.

- Dialpad

Dialpad and Yahoo have merged services. Currently, Dialpad offers three plans- Dialpad Monthly 300, Dialpad Monthly 500, and Dialpad USA. The cost for Dialpad Monthly 300 is $7.50 per month, Dialpad Monthly 500 costs $9.99 per month, and Dialpad USA costs $11.99 per month.

- Broadvox Direct

Broadvox Direct offers residential and small business services. Their residential services include the Residential Choice Plus plan for $9.95 per month. The Residential Choice Plus plan includes 100 outbound minutes and unlimited incoming minutes. Their Residential Unlimited Plan costs $29.95 a month and includes unlimited calling anywhere in the US and Canada. The SoHo Small Business Regional Plan costs $34.95 per month and includes 1500 monthly minutes in the US and in Canada. The SoHo Small Business Unlimited Plan costs $44.95 per month and includes unlimited calls in the US and Canada and also includes a free fax line and Yellow Page listing.

- Galaxy Voice

Galaxy Voice offers two plans, Residential and Business. Their residential plan costs $19.95 a month and includes unlimited calling, Voicemail, Caller Id, Call Waiting, Call Return, Three Way Calling, and Call Forwarding. Their business plan costs $39.95 per month and includes unlimited calling, Free Voice Mail, Free Call Transfer, Free Call Forwarding, Free Repeat Dialing, and Free Caller ID block.

- Voice Pulse

Voice Pulse has three plans, America Unlimited, Local Unlimited +200, and Business Unlimited. The America Unlimited plan costs $24.99 per month. The Local Unlimited +200 costs $14.99 per month, and the Business Unlimited costs $45.99 per month.

- VoIP American

VoIP American has three different plans. These are the VoIP American PBX plan, the VoIP American Voice plan and the VoIP American bVoice plan. The VoIP American PBX plan cost $19.99 a month for a private line and $44.99 a month for unlimited calling. The VoIP Voice Residential Basic plan costs $14.99 per month and the VoIP Voice Residential Unlimited plan costs $29.99 per month. The bVoice Business plan costs $34.99 per month.

- Packet 8

Packet 8 not only offers phone plans, but they also offer videophone plans. Their residential plans are the Freedom International and Freedom Unlimited. Both of these plans cost $19.99 per month. [note: currently they're running a special for $9.95 per month for your 1st 3 months.] The Videophone plan is the Freedom Unlimited and that too is $19.99 per month. Their business plans consists of three different plans. These are the Virtual Office service plans, the Virtual Attendant Service plans, and the Business Phone Service plans. The Virtual office phone plan costs $39.95 per month, the Virtual Attendant service plan costs $14.95 per month, and the Business Attendant service plan costs $34.95 per month.

- Sun Rocket

Sun Rocket offers their signature service for either $24.95 per month or $199.00 per year.

- Speakeasy

Speakeasy offers many different plans ranging from Home Office, Small Office I, Small Office II, and Small Business. Their Home Office plan costs 79.90 per month, the Small Office I plan costs $560.00 per month, the Small Office II plan costs 1,039 per month and the Small Business plan costs $2,349 per month.

Analyzing phone service is often a real headache. However, unreliable line quality, which results in poor customer service and huge monthly bills are even worse. In the end, doing your research will pay dividends for your business. Personally, I have no reservations recommending Packet8 for your business VoIP solution right now. However, go through the above steps first for your own peace of mind…..you’ll likely reach the same conclusion.