Voice over IP Telephony is revolutionising the way in which office communications take place. Originally all telephone calls worldwide, mobile or landline were routed through what is called the PSTN or Public Switched Telephone Network - the mobile system is configured via GSM traditionally whereas the landline system runs through an international legacy copper wire cabling network. The PSTN is defined as :
A domestic telecommunications network usually accessed by telephones, key telephone systems, private branch exchange trunks, and data arrangements. Note: Completion of the circuit between the call originator and call receiver in a PSTN requires network signaling in the form of dial pulses or multifrequency tones.
A giant leap from this traditional communications loop has been IP telephony - variously referred to as , Internet telephony, voice over broadband (VoBB), broadband telephony, and broadband phone and most commonly perhaps, VoIP Telephony. The idea originated in the early seventies when the idea of Protocol for Packet Network Interconnection was first put forward by the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE). Since then, of course, the world has seen massive advances in speed of data transfer and an almost 100percent penetration of broadband into homes and businesses in the present day.
This availability of high speed data transfer has made the possibility of SIP and VoIP protocols being integrated in to both home and office environments.
Initially the uptake was slow. Skype brought the concept to the masses in their homes and can be seen to have, single handedly, changed the conception of VoIP phone calls. People around the world realised that they could enjoy high quality phone calls for free utilising only their broadband connection.
For businesses the issue was slightly more complex. There is the issue of the high bandwidth that voice packets take up and the fact also that for a professional organisation it is imperative to have high quality and stable lines of communication.
These issues have, to a large extent, been resolved, with modern VoIP installations requiring a dedicated broadband line and improvements in SIP protocols.
Nowadays it is an extremely viable alternative for a company to migrate their VoIP Telephone System from the PSTN and have either a hosted IP platform - whereby there is a virtual VoIP Telephone System or have their own IP PABX System. One of the benefits of this migration to VoIP is the scalability and usability of the new systems - it is extremely easy to add new extensions and routing loops to a VoIP Telephone System without additional cost. Therefore, although a company will have an initial capital outlay in purchasing the new system and hardware, there are massive saving in total cost of ownership as a system will generally pay for itself in call and management savings within a few years.
Once you have installed you VoIP system and configured all the extensions and routing channels there is the necessity to consider the most suitable hardware for the environment. We researched some alternatives and found that Best4IP have a vast range of VoIP Phones available which include IP Conferencing Phones, IP System Phones and IP headsets for use with either direct through the Internet or via a VoIP/ SIPP switchboard.
This new communications network, though in its infancy, is already extremely sophisticated - we can only wait to see what the future holds.
