One of the biggest industries in the world today currently is the phone industry. Money enters this industry through the sale of actual phone units being sold, people purchasing mobile phones, mobile contracts and telephone bills. Because it is such a large and successful industry it is no surprise that people are beginning to be contacted by different companies claiming that they have the latest technology on the telephone market. Here in this article we look at the impact VoIP phones have on this industry and what this technology can do.

In today’s fast paced and business-minded world new technologies only survive on their own merits than what sales people can ever claim, whilst trying to take their commission. One technology that has done that recently is VoIP. VoIP is an acronym that stands for voice over internet protocol; this technology allows customers to chat to others over their internet connection rather than the conventional telephone line. The quality of VoIP phones is just as good as other technology, providing that the internet connection is good. Also long distance calls will not suffer with bad quality as it is all done over the internet.

The only real difference between VoIP phones and traditional phones is the price; maintenance costs for VoIP are hugely cheaper than what is paid with landlines and mobile. The direct reason for this is due to the fact the internet is already being used to help consumers facilitate their needs. The consumers are also largely paying for the potential service just by paying for their broadband connection.

Setting up VoIP is really not that difficult either, obviously you will need a broadband connection in order for it work but the connection will have to be fast in terms of cable or DSL connection. Once you have this then all you need is a phone to be able to use the VoIP phones service. Once you have set up with a company that provides VoIP service they will send you details on how to arrange cables and your modem for the service to work. Once that is all set up you will simply be able to pick up your phone and make phone calls worldwide for free. This technology is quick, easy and extremely convenient to use. Many companies today are latching on to this idea and are taking conference calls for long distance with VoIP, eventually this technology will change how we use phones today.

Dominic Donaldson is an expert in the telephone industry. Find out more about VoIP Phones and how the services available can help with providing you with VoIP technology.

Article Source: Articlespan

VOIP offers so many benefits, primary of which is tremendous savings in the monthly phone bills. But the question that many ask is will people end up using VOIP instead of cell phones? While nobody can deny that cell phones are indeed extremely useful as is proved by the near total market penetration of the cell phone industry, yet VOIP mobiles can indeed cut telephone costs immensely.

Many people get portability with their VOIP service as they may fix their adaptor in anyplace that has a broadband access and make calls. But as the service is dependant on the reliability and the quality of the internet connection, it is rather a drawback.

Many wonder if there is a viable market for wi-fi VOIP phones. Indeed there will be many who would welcome this on account of the obvious reason, saving nearly 50% on the monthly phone bill. Many cell phone companies have addressed the situation by producing dual-mode phones that can be used as regular cell phones which can seamlessly convert into a Wi-Fi VOIP phone too.

Wi-Fi VOIP is enabled within wireless networks that are activated by what is known as a "hotspot". A hotspot is an area where you find an access point to establish the connection to the network. Mobile users can pick up signals from hotspot to hotspot as they travel within the various network access points.

Some firms have gone ahead and produced completely VOIP mobile phones. This must be welcome news to customers as mobile phone call minutes will definitely become more pocket friendly with mobile VOIP services. This is because they use free radio spectrum and internet instead of investing in large expensive towers, thus they cost less. The reason why many wireless carriers are afraid to venture into wi-fi VOIP is that their landline service will suffer.

VOIP mobile phones are relatively inexpensive to use as other products of VOIP technology. It is technically cheaper to submit audio as data packets over the Internet with less bandwidth. The compression technology is improving so the voice quality is becoming better with less noises or intrusions.

About 200 US cities have made it clear that they will introduce many wi-fi Hotspots free of charge. There are some concerns that wi-fi may replace broadband and traditional phone line services. Well, when that day comes, the customers will benefit getting not only extremely affordable rates but quality service too, that is why they may opt for using VOIP instead of cell phones.

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In your business you may have a specific answering machine, or you may have a secretary who answers the phone for you. Depending on the size of your business you may have a preferred way of addressing telephone calls. Here are the pros and cons of both a VoIP answering machine and a human answering machine.

VoIP Answering Machine:

Pros: When you have a VoIP answering machine, the service directs callers to specific people or departments in your company. A touchtone automated service eliminates the need for a secretary and streamlines the calls you receive. You can set the call waiting for a specific amount of time and play music. Hosting can be remote and applications can be hosted in a public network to accept greater call volume than one person can handle. When callers receive a touchtone automated service they are more likely to assume the professionalism of your business. With this is the fact that time is money and workers in your company are busy doing other things, that if your phone call is really important, then they will they answer it but otherwise phone calls are distracting.

Cons: When you have customers with a specific question that doesn’t quite fit into one of your departments, or they really want to speak with someone immediately they may get frustrated and hang up. But if they really need to talk to someone they will call back. Hint: it may be a good idea to have as an option, perhaps the last, speak with an operator.

Human Answering Machine:

Pros: A secretary usually does much more than answer the phone; administrative procedure and the like follow under her duties. That being said, having a human handle your call volume usually means that they can offer more than a VoIP answering service.

Cons: You have to pay an extra employee, whereas most of the time, an automated phone menu is included in your monthly VoIP service providers phone bill.

So, it seems as if the pros for a VoIP answering machine are greater than the cons. If you have a business with more than five people, it is probably a good idea to invest in VoIP. If your company is still developing , wait until you have some more people before choosing a touchtone automated service. Allowing customers to talk to a live representative will help you build the customer base that you need to grow into a larger company.

Plus when you use VoIP you can save a lot of money on other features. Long distance calling is a cinch because you pay through your internet service. You can have multiple party communication because VoIP compresses data packets so that more data can be handled, and more calls can be taken at once. Software and hardware is relatively cheap too so making the switch won’t cost an arm and a leg. It seems like a VoIP answering machine is the right choice.

http://www.ITP4YOU.com is the leading business VoIP service provider in the United States. Visit ITP VoIP for business voip service and voip broadband phone. Visit our blog at http://itpvoip.blogspot.com/

Article Source: Articlespan

There are now more options than ever when it comes to your phone service. Spending large amounts of money every month on long distance telephone calls is a thing of the past- or at least, it should be. New technology of today can make all of your phone calls more affordable and many of them free. This is because there are new ways to place phone calls other than the previous, standard method of calling.

VOIP phones can make your long distance fees a thing of the past. With promotional VOIP phones you can make your long distance calls with nominal or non-existent long distance fees. How great would it be if you could make all of your business calls without expense or call any of your friends and family and talk for as long as you want with no fees at all? This is what VOIP allows you to do.

What is VOIP?

What is VOIP? VOIP stands for voice over Internet protocol and is a technology that uses packet-switched networks to transmit voice over audio files. The voice/audio files are received by a computer, a VOIP phone or a standard telephone. Systems can be set up for the VOIP service to work in the most convenient way for you.

You can use promotional VOIP phones to give away to your employees, to host contests and rewards and much more. In fact, you are limited only by your ability to get creative so spend some time thinking about great ideas for using promotional phones.

Take Advantage of Offers

You can take advantage of the many great offers given by the companies who host VOIP phones and services. Because they are trying to get more people into the use of these phones, they give promotional VOIP phones with deals such as free phones for two years, $19.95 unlimited calling and much more. If you want to get the most from your use of VOIP phones, be sure to look into these offers and choose the best one for you and your needs at the time.

How to Use Promotional VOIP

There are different ways you can make use of promotional VOIP phones to benefit you. For example, you can offer packages or phone deals to your employees for personal use as a motivational tool in your company. Here are some other ideas:

• Use them within the company to make calls when needed
• Allow employees to use them to make personal calls during breaks at work
• Give the promotional phones away as gifts and rewards
• Use them for contests at work and among employees

When it comes to VOIP phones, there are many different ways you can use them to advance your business or even to help save money with personal calls and usage. The more you learn about VOIP phones and promotional VOIP phone offers, the better equipped you will be to make a decision about them for yourself.

If you’re one of the many companies out there looking for a new and innovative way to encourage, reward or motivate your staff or team, consider the options available when using promotional VOIP phones.

Matt Franks is director of Fluid Branding, the UK’s largest supplier of promotional VOIP Phones and other Promotional Products at www.fluidbranding.com. For Eco Friendly promotional products, including Recycled, Organic and Sustainable items visit www.ecoincentives.com

Article Source: ArticleSpan

Voice over IP telephone services are revolutionising how the world communicates, individuals, and businesses are embracing the capabilities and harnessing the power of the internet. Despite voice over IP being a great technological breakthrough, security is still a major concern, yet with the proper precautions it should not have to be.

Most users implementing VOIP these days are primarily concerned about voice quality, latency and interoperability. However we shouldn’t overlook the security risks that can crop up when the voice and data worlds converge, users and analysts say.

With voice over IP, voice traffic is carried over a packet-switched data network via Internet Protocol. VOIP networks treat voice as another form of data but use sophisticated voice-compression algorithms to ensure optimal bandwidth utilization. As a result, VOIP networks are able to carry many more voice calls than traditional switched circuit networks. Voice over IP also enables enhanced services such as unified communications.

Securing voice traffic on such networks isn’t very different from securing any data traffic on an IP network. In a VOIP world, private branch exchanges are replaced by server-based IP PBXs running on Windows NT or a vendor’s proprietary operating system. Such call management boxes, which are used both for serving up VOIP services and for logging call information, are susceptible to virus attacks and hackers. Break-ins of these servers could result in the loss or compromise of potentially sensitive data..
Consequently, it’s important that such equipment is properly locked down, placed behind firewalls, patched against vulnerabilities and frequently monitored using intrusion-detection systems.

The University of Houston went one step further and made sure that its call manager and its entire VOIP network aren’t directly accessible from the Internet. The school has put its IP PBXs in a different domain than its other servers and has limited administration access to the servers.

VOIP gateway technologies are also a potential weak point. When VOIP is used externally, gateway technologies convert data packets from the IP network into voice before sending them over a public switched telephone network. When VOIP is used internally, the gateways basically route packetised voice data between the source and the destination.

The concern here is that such gateways can be hacked into by malicious attackers in order to make free telephone calls. The trick to protecting against this lies in having strict access-control lists and making sure the gateway is configured in such a fashion that only the people on this list are permitted to make and receive VOIP calls.

As with traditional telephony, eavesdropping is a concern for organizations using VOIP-and the consequences can be greater. Because voice travels in packets over the data network, hackers can use data-sniffing and other hacking tools to identify, modify, store and play back voice traffic traversing the network.

Ultimately, it’s important to remember that securing a VOIP infrastructure involves nothing that is drastically different from the measures corporations have always taken to protect their data. To sum up, There are a few simple things any corporation can take to protect their VOIP network, firstly separating and isolating voice traffic onto a virtual LAN is one way of mitigating the risk, of unauthorised access. Secondly using access lists that define exactly who is entitled to access the network will stamp out external threats. Finally using encryption, as you should with any sensitive data, adds another layer to your secure communication.

John Mce writes on behalf of G3 telecommunications Find out about enterprise & business VOIP solutions & IP telephone systems at G3 Telecommunications.

Article Source: ArticleSpan