Perceptions vs Reality of VoIP
Do you talk on the phone for business? Would you like to do it better and cheaper? Do you think that phones over the Internet sounds too new, expensive, and unreliable? Let’s talk about the perceptions versus the reality of VoIP.
To begin with, what is a VoIP system? In simplest terms, it’s a method that utilizes the internet as a means of communication. Voice over systems provide an innovation to pre-existing systems designed to transfer data. The same Internet we access daily to order food, buy merchandise or watch the latest episode of our favorite series is already set up for voice telecommunications.
The ease of VoIP use enables such devices such as iPhones, Bluetooth devices, apps and tablets which all tap into the internet. A business VoIP system’s magic resides in its simplicity of use. Yet still misconceptions fester about VoIP systems. Until recently, VoIP technology was largely ignored because it was unknown.
So, what are some of the differences in perceptions of what a VoIP phone system actually is? Also, what can such a business phone system do?
When it comes to technology, we see reactions from two groups. There are the techies, steeped in the mysteries of technology, and then everyone else, aka users. The notion that most people have never heard of a VoIP system before is usually a sucker’s bet. Most people didn’t know of the technology until remote work became a viable, and necessary, option.
So what is Voice Over Internet Protocol? In the simplest terms, it’s a set of protocols for sending and receiving telephone and fax information over Internet data lines, as opposed to traditional copper phone lines. Easy! Pick up the phone or turn on the fax machine with the same convenience as calling your parents to see if the washing machine is open.
Google Phone is the most likely candidate for which system any given individual has used. Businesses using VoIP systems usually have a stronger grasp of how it works from a business point of view. That understanding for them translates into lower cost, higher function, and more value.
But what should the average person know about VoIP? Can it work for small to medium businesses as well, or is it a matter of bigger systems cost less? Will it be reliable? Will a VoIP business system do what the business needs it to? Answering these questions requires looking from two perspectives.
The Technical Side
One of the major problems most people run into is when the IT department tries to explain VoIP and why the business needs a VoIP system. People who work with the systems often describe it from their perspective and through their filters. Not always useful to the people who just want the phones to work.
So, let’s try to help out. Old style copper lines worked with a copper wire between two phones. Electricity flowed down that line in an elaboration of Morse code. One telephone translated sounds into that beep beep nothing beep electrical pulse code and the other phone translated it back into sounds. This allowed the conversation to happen much further apart than yelling can manage, because the electrical pulses weren’t diminished over distance.
As the phone system got more complex, switch boards allowed one phone to connect with multiple others by switching the connections between all the options. Originally, everyone on one circuit could hear everybody else talking on the same circuit. Operators were needed to manually do the switching, and they could listen in as well. Of course, more equipment came along that solved these issues, and the system got to the point of connecting any phone with any other phone that was hooked in without outside connections.
Businesses had to create their own copper line systems within the business to have extensions, conference calls, and so on. These were usually expensive and only worthwhile for large businesses. After all, that’s a lot of copper.
Then the Internet came along. Everything on the Internet is boiled down to binary, 0’s and 1’s. Originally the Internet worked on the same phone lines as the telephone system, but it wasn’t long until data lines were invented that could send those 0’s and 1’s faster and better. However, old style phones didn’t work with hyper text transfer protocol, that http at the beginning of every Internet address. Phones weren’t equipped to translate the code of the data lines.
VoIP, at the heart, is a data transmission protocol for phones using data lines instead of copper hard lines. A VoIP phone can use the voice transmission protocols of the Internet, translate the sounds into data, send that data, and translate back into sounds. That, at the core, is what Voice Over Internet Protocol offers.
VoIP phones can do this over either private or public data networks. If a company has a private data network, anyone with access to a VoIP phone hooked up can call anywhere else within the private network. However, to call someone outside that private network requires access to the World Wide Web. VoIP phones create connections using the same Internet service providers and servers that everything else on the Internet does.
Yes the jargon can become thick, but VoIP is an entirely new data transmission protocol. Each layer of VoIP functionality represents the culmination of a lifetime’s technological advancement. VoIP has been under development for decades, and in fact is about to become standard in 2025. The FCC set 2025 as the sunset date on the old style copper system.
So, why does it seem so new? More on that in a bit. Let’s take a look at it from the point of view of those who utilize these services on a day by day basis.
The User’s Perspective
Since the COVID-19 pandemic we have seen a growing trend for remote work. Many people wound up with a VoIP set up in the home office, while the company headquarters reside in a whole different state. Traditional phones can’t do that, but VoIP business systems manage it easily.
While most can wrap their minds around how the phone system uses the internet, there is still a bit of a magic box mentality in actual understanding. And that’s fine, so long as the technical support is there and understands the end user’s needs.
Trying to create a picture of how a VoIP system works often sounds like science fiction. Within Star Wars: Clone Wars, droid armies used this huge and complex system to communicate, and those clunky systems are the first to come to mind. Even the simplest tasks were often routed through increasingly complex chains of command. The end effect was something slow and cumbersome, so is that what will happen with a business VoIP system?
That comparison is more analogous to the older phone systems which involved copper lines and switch boards. Not that the old system was a bad one, but it ran slow with a lot of pieces involved. As the switch board moved from the need for switchboard operators to an automated one, copper line systems suffered from complexity.
Then, in our analogy, the Jedi came in at a crucial moment. They employed a simple comlink or palm sized holoprojector and contacted who they needed to, in real life time frames. The Jedi saw a situation, called the Jedi Council for a video conference, formed a daring plan and then passed the plan onto the clone army to ultimately save the day.
Ok, that’s a nerdy description, but one that is workable considering the average user. Users need the systems they must use to offer a high degree of user friendliness. Intuitive use accounts for app popularity, the learning curve is non-existent. Modern apps are programs that make our lives easy at the press of an icon. Our company, offering VoIP service, makes this idea a reality for our clients. We make the system ergonomic, easy, and reliable for the end user.
Though the phrase “the magic box,” may fail to describe the actual processes involved, the end result is the same. We create, provision, and maintain systems for end users that are as natural and intuitive as checking the weather on a smartphone.
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