Debunking the Top Five VoIP Myths
Over the past few years there’s been a lot written about a service nearly every small business has heard of, but doesn’t fully understand: VoIP. At a basic level, VoIP, or Voice over Internet Protocol, is simply an Internet-based replacement for traditional phone systems, offering significant cost savings and enhanced technology, providing added convenience and productivity. In the face of challenging economic conditions, switching to VoIP is one of the smartest and should be one of the easiest decisions a company can make, especially considering small businesses have to work so much harder these days – and often on smaller budgets – just to remain competitive.
Despite this set of circumstances, the buzz surrounding VoIP seems to have died down, even in the face of phenomenal growth – in fact, research firm Dell ‘Oro Group expects 35 million small businesses worldwide to adopt VoIP calling by 2011.
But why the wait?
Businesses that have yet to make the switch may still be confused, intimidated or just poorly informed about VoIP. Beyond an odd-sounding name, there are popular myths keeping the traditional phone system holdovers from making the switch to VoIP – myths in need of busting as the education process about this service continues:
Myth #1: It’s not really going to save much money.
Switching to VoIP can save small businesses as much as 45 percent each month over traditional phone service. These savings come in the way of drastically reduced costs for long distance calls, as well as the elimination of maintenance fees and costs associated with moving, adding or changing employee phone lines.
Myth #2: It’s too much of a hassle to set up and manage.
There are different types of VoIP options available, depending on a businesses’ size and current phone system setup. With hosted systems there is no PBX hardware on site, which means nothing for the business to manage. These systems are ideal for companies at the end of equipment leases, and/or those looking to cost-effectively connect multiple locations and mobile employees with voice service. For those locked into an equipment lease, integrated VoIP services allow companies to plug right into those existing systems. Both solutions allow small businesses to take advantage of features usually found only in more expensive, big business-type systems, such as automated attendant, hunt group and call center routing.
Myth #3: Call clarity is inferior to traditional phone quality.
The reality is, call quality is directly influenced by broadband quality. Speakeasy provides business-class, voice-optimized broadband, which eliminates data interference when using data and voice on a single line by prioritizing voice traffic over all other data.
Myth #4: The technology is still too new.
The technology has been around since the mid-90s and has come a long way since.
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ViOP Myths... Still Not Convinced...
Bruce Chatterley is telling a one-sided story and should realize that putting all your eggs in one basket (ie. voice and internet access) would pose a major downfall for any business. When one goes offline, all services go offline. For a business, this is a quick way to kill a day (if not several days) worth of productive work and eats into your profit margin. In other words, no calls and no internet access when your broadband provider goes down equates to no influx of income for your business and the perception that your business no longer exists in the eyes of your customers.Let's not forget that this makes any business vulnerable to cyber attacks that could cripple any company let alone our country's communications infrastructure with a single denial of service attack.
But if you want this type of service, sure... go ahead. Knock yourself out. I'll keep a space open on the unemployment line for you when your business collapses.
Hi Mudkicker - Amanda from
Hi Mudkicker - Amanda from Speakeasy here. The occasional unexpected connectivity interruption is inevitable with any business, whether it be from natural disasters or from equipment failures. However, with Speakeasy Hosted VoIP, you are connected to to servers on a multi-redundant, nationwide network, which consists of redundant power, power backup and multiple connections. In addition to the redundancy and backup that make outages less likely - in the event of a brief outage, the hosted phone system continues to function virtually, allowing callers to continue to leave voicemail, or allowing you to even forward calls to an alternate phone. For a more in-depth explanation, you can check out a white paper on the topic athttp://www.speakeasy.net/pdf/SPK_VoIPContinuity_WP.pdf.
I hope that helps address some of your concerns.
VoIP service <> all your eggs in one basket
We've been doing this for almost a decade and never had a customer's voice disrupted because of internet or network problems.1) Hosted VoIP can pass both the Voice and Data to you across a dedicated line. Since both the Data and Voice are coming from the VoIP host they filter out any attacks and limit the data so that it never interferes with the voice
2) Hosted VoIP only connects to your office phones - the server, voicemail, auto attendant, etc all live at a colocation facilities. These facilities all have redundant power and emergency generators, plus redundant internal networks and multiple connections to the internet across multiple providers.
3) If the server can't talk to your VoIP phone for any reason, the call flows over to your Cell phone or any other destination you choose.
4) We setup our medium and large customers with VLAN enabled switches that give priority to Voice over Data - so even if your internal network grinds to a stand still due to a virus outbreak, your phones will still function flawlessly. We've had customers to call us up and tell us exactly that! And yes they were amazed.
You see the best feature of VoIP is that your phone number is no longer a slave to one device - one phone. It is free to roam where ever you roam, and to change where it goes at the click of your mouse.
Jon Carnes
FeatureTel Support