If your business is moving over to a VoIP telephone system, you’ll probably need IP phones to effectively utilise your system in the office. While some may utilise softphones, most businesses want physical phones for their employees.

What is an IP phone? An IP phone is a physical office phone sits on a network. An IP phone stores its own information and has its own IP address.

The IP phone definition covers several types of phone, including desk phones, cordless phones, and conference phones. These phones closely resemble their analogue counterparts, so you’ve probably used an IP phone without knowing so. In this blog post, I’m going to explain how IP phones differ from analogue and answer several frequently asked questions about IP phones.

How Do IP Phones Work?

As we know, IP phones use the power of the internet rather than traditional telephone technology. IP phones receive analogue signals and converts them into digital signals, thereby enabling a conversation on the phone.

These digital signals are sent over a network cable and the signals are routed to the right location in your cloud-based telephone system. The way that the IP phones actually work doesn’t really matter, because you as the user will not notice a difference between IP telephony and traditional circuit-switched PSTN telephony.

So what does this actually mean, without the tech jargon? Essentially, an IP phone acts exactly the same as an analogue phone. The difference is analogue phones use the traditional phone network, whereas IP phones use the internet. To users, everything else is pretty much the same.

IP phones are designed to utilise the capabilities of a VoIP telephone system. VoIP systems are typically far more advanced than traditional phone systems, packed full of extra functionality. Therefore, these IP phones also have more functionality than standard analogue phones to accommodate the extra features available with a VoIP system. For example, IP phones allow for easy conference calling. They also have the expected functionality, such as hold, mute, redial and speed dial.

Where Can IP Phones Be Used?

Although you may primarily use IP phones in the office, you might be wondering whether they can be used elsewhere. For example, if you suddenly had to work from home, would you be able to take your IP phone with you and use it there?

One of the main benefits of a cloud-based telephone system is that you can use its full functionality no matter where you are. Similarly, you can use your IP phone wherever you are, providing you have power and an internet connection.

You can unplug your IP phone in the office and plug it in anywhere else, such as at home. Once the device is plugged back in, all of its settings will be completely unchanged. You’ll still have the entire functionality available to you that you would if you were in the office.

If you have employees working remotely or you’ve moving offices, the fact you can plug an IP phone in anywhere is perfect. In the moving office scenario, you can take the time to get your new office right while your employees can work from home and remain productive.

If you wanted to get really fancy, you can have one IP phone at home and one at the office. These would function identically, with the same settings, and you could pick up the phone on either. This is perfect for ensuring you don’t miss any calls. It’s particularly ideal if you split your time between the office and your home office.

Does Moving Over To IP Phones Mean Retraining Staff?

While IP phones are cost-effective, future-proof, and offer great flexibility, you might wonder how much training your staff will need when you introduce them.

Fortunately, your staff won’t require a great deal of training if you move over to a VoIP telephone system and IP phones. Most IP phone functionality is identical analogue phones, so your staff will already be familiar with how they work.

Despite the fact that IP phones are very similar to analogue phones, what if you have staff that require training regardless? In my experience, VoIP providers usually offer free training on how IP phones work for those who want it as part of the initial set up. There are also hundreds of guides out there that offer detailed instructions on how a typical IP phone functions.

One good aspect of IP phones are that they’re future-proof. IP phones are built to last and VoIP telephony is the future for every business. Once your team know how to use IP phones – which shouldn’t take long – you’ll never have to train them to use phones again. IP phones are here to stay, so if you invest in them now, you’ll never have to invest again.

Do I Need IP Phones If I Have A VoIP Telephone System?

If you’re in the process of moving over to VoIP, you may be wondering whether you can use your existing analogue handsets for VoIP instead of investing in new handsets.

If you want to use handsets, you do need IP phones if you have a VoIP telephone system. Most providers will lease you the IP phones as part of your agreement, meaning setting up your system won’t be as expensive as you might think. There’s no need to buy handsets. You can instead lease them for as long as you need them.

If you don’t want your team to use handsets with your VoIP telephone system, you could use softphones instead. A softphone is an application that can be installed on any internet-enabled device with a microphone and a speaker. A softphone allows you to make and receive calls via devices such as mobile phones, laptops, tablets and PCs. If you’re keeping a keen eye on costs, this is the most cost-effective way to set up a VoIP telephone system for your business.

If you’re looking into IP telephony for your business, you’ve likely come across the terms ‘hardphone’ and ‘softphone’. VoIP telephone systems use both hardphones and softphones, depending on the requirements of the user. That’s why it’s important to know the difference between the two.

What’s the difference between a hardphone and a softphone? A hardphone is a physical IP phone that plugs into the network. A softphone is is software used on PCs and laptops with full VoIP functionality.

Most businesses use hardphones, but softphones are a cost-effective option and still gives your business the full functionality of your VoIP telephone system. I’m going to compare hardphones and softphones, giving you a good idea of how both work and how your business could use them.

Hardphones: How They Work And Benefits For Your Business

Hardphones typically resemble a traditional telephone and they function in a virtually identical way. Instead of dialling out over traditional telephone lines, however, calls are instead made over the internet.

For the most part, VoIP hardphones will plug directly into your network. While hardphones typically have power supplies, some hardphones are PoE. This means an ethernet cable powers the device, meaning only one cable will be needed to power the phone and connect it to the network.

IP hardphones are more advanced than your average phone and offer greater functionality. They are designed specifically with VoIP telephone systems in mind, so they enable you to make the most of your system.

Now you have a good idea of how hardphones work, I’m going to talk through some of the benefits of these devices.

Greater Reliability

Hardphones are typically more reliable than softphones. Softphones naturally rely on your PC or laptop to function correctly. If your device is running slow or you’re having some other technical issues, you may lose your softphone. If you have a lot of applications open or processes running, this can impact the performance of your softphone.

When you are using hardphones, you have devices dedicated to making and receiving calls. Ultimately, this means you have a more reliable solution. Hardphones don’t have other processes going on in the background, as they are solely used for calls. This will ensure good call quality every time, as performance will not be impacted by anything that you’re doing on your PC.

Not Reliant On A Computer/Laptop

It’s impossible to use a softphone without a computer or laptop, or another device that you can install the software on. With this in mind, you could lose phone system functionality if your computer suddenly stopped working.

As I briefly mentioned before, a hardphone is not reliant on a computer to function. It is a separate device that doesn’t integrate with your computer, so you can use it regardless of how your computer is functioning.

Requires Less Training To Use

Depending on the age and experience of your workforce, moving over to a VoIP telephone system is likely easier if you use hardphones. Hardphones are similar in appearance to traditional desk phones, so your workforce will already know how they function. If you start using softphones after your team have been using traditional phones for many years, there may be a bit of a learning curve and more extensive training needed.

Although softphones work similarly to a standard desk phone, using a piece of software is harder than using a hardphone for those with no training. If you want to integrate your new telephone system as smoothly as possible, hardphones would be the best option.

Softphones: How They Work and Benefits For Your Business

A softphone is software on a computer, laptop or smartphone, among other devices. Any device with a microphone, speakers and internet connection can have the needed software installed on it. The software offers full VoIP telephone system functionality without the need for an actual desk phone.

You can use a softphone anywhere, not just in the office. As long as your device has an internet connection, you will be able to access your softphone and use it to make and receive calls. This makes softphones perfect for businesses that have employees working remotely or don’t operate from a fixed location where a hardphone could be installed.

As with the hardphones, all calls are made over the internet rather than a traditional phone line. As your internet-enabled device is already connected to your network, no extra cabling or hardware will be required to use a softphone.

So, that’s a bit of background on softphones and how they work. Now I’m going to take you through some of the key benefits.

No Extra Hardware Needed

If you choose to use softphones, you don’t require any hardware as long as you have an internet-enabled device with a microphone and speaker. This means your business can be set up quicker and for less upfront investment.

If you are working to a tight budget but need a telephone system with plenty of functionality, a VoIP telephone system combined with softphones is perfect. Softphones still have all the VoIP functionality included, so you don’t miss out on any features.

Quicker Rollout

Getting your team set up on softphones is much quicker than getting them set up on hardphones. Provided your team have suitable internet-enabled devices, it’s as simple as downloading the software onto their devices and configuring it. You don’t need hardphones installed at every desk, with can be time-consuming depending on the size of your team.

Depending on the size of your team and where everyone is based, softphones can be ready to use in hours, rather than days or weeks. Depending on the provider that you choose, configuration can be completed remotely with no need to have an engineer coming to your office. When compared with hardphones, softphone rollout is much quicker.

Ideal For Remote Working

Although it is possible to unplug a hardphone and take it home to plug into your home router, it’s not ideal for businesses with a mobile workforce. If you do have a mobile workforce, softphones will suit you and your team much better.

As a softphone hardware can be installed on any internet-enabled device with a microphone and speaker, remote workers can literally carry their office telephone system with them and have the full functionality available to people using hardphones.

Hardphones v Softphones: Which Is Best For Your Business?

Both hardphones and softphones have distinct benefits that mean they both have a place in business communications. However, which should you choose for your business?

Whether you should choose hardphones or softphones really depends on how your business works. Most businesses using a VoIP telephone system actually utilise both to ensure their teams can work no matter where they are.

If your business has a team that’s always moving from location to location, softphones are likely the best solution. Similarly, if your team are always in the office, hardphones may be a better option due to their superior reliability. The best type of phone for your business really does depend on your circumstances.

I hope you’ve found this blog post useful. Hopefully you have a greater knowledge that you can use to choose the best type of phone for your business. I’d really love to read your thoughts in the comments below, so please leave me a message below.

As businesses gradually embrace more cloud-based solutions and move over to digital services, many businesses owners are asking if VoIP is better than traditional PSTN. This is a very valid question, as a reliable telephone system really is a business essential.

Is VoIP better than traditional PSTN? Yes, VoIP is better than traditional PSTN in numerous ways. VoIP is cheaper, more secure and has been proven time and time again to enhance productivity.

So now we’ve answered that burning question, I’m going to fully explain why VoIP is better than traditional PSTN. This will give you a full overview of how VoIP is better and how it will enhance your business’s communication.

How Is VoIP Better Than PSTN?

As I briefly mentioned above, VoIP is better than PSTN in numerous ways. VoIP is more cost-effective, doesn’t require any onsite maintenance, and it’s improved security is the cherry on top.

Here’s why VoIP is better than PSTN in more detail.

VoIP Doesn’t Require Its Own Infrastructure

VoIP is a digital service, which is advantageous in many ways as you likely already know. Because VoIP is a digital service, it doesn’t require it’s own infrastructure in the same way that PSTN would. VoIP actually shares the same network as all over internet services.

As VoIP uses your existing data infrastructure, this can mean lower installation costs and full integration with your business systems. More businesses are seeing the importance of unified communications, and VoIP plays a big part in establishing unified communications for your business.

PSTN does not integrate with your existing infrastructure. Instead, it uses its own dedicated voice network. Ultimately, this means greater costs for your business and arguably a worse communication setup.

Because PSTN uses its own infrastructure, you require specialist technicians whenever you need any technical support. Since VoIP uses your existing infrastructure, you only need one technician to manage your data network. This removes the need for separate technicians, with one dedicated to your data network and the other dedicated to maintaining your voice network.

VoIP is more efficient and integrates more suitably into your business’s systems. While this might not seem important, a business essential such as a telephone system must integrate as smoothly as possible with your wider business network.

VoIP has Greater Scalability and Cost-Effective Upgrades

If your business is always evolving, you need a telephone system that will change with your business. You need a telephone system that you can rely upon forever, rather than an unreliable system that you won’t be able to rely on for more than a couple of years.

VoIP telephone systems are extremely flexible and designed with scalability in mind. As your business grows and changes, your VoIP system will evolve easily and smoothly to meet demand. This is perhaps best demonstrated by the simplicity of adding a new user to your system. Adding a new user is as simple as adding a new licence and configuring it – it can be done in hours. When you have a PSTN system, adding a new user typically involves purchasing another line and more hardware. This is complex, costly, and can take a long time.

The same can be said again of VoIP when it comes to upgrades in general. Providers upgrade and maintain VoIP in the cloud. So as your VoIP system evolves, you don’t need to purchase and install extra equipment onsite. There’s no extra cost for you, even though you have an ever-improving telephone system.

With PSTN, upgrades typically involves, again, purchasing new hardware and onsite work. Once again, this is very costly and complex. PSTN is antiquated technology and isn’t designed with easy scalability and upgrades in mind.

VoIP has Greater Call Management Capabilities

It’s important that you can easily manage calls from customers and colleagues to ensure productivity and customer satisfaction. While VoIP has several value-add services available free of charge that enhance call management, PSTN providers charge for these features – if they’re available at all on the older technology.

VoIP telephone systems have a host of call management facilities that enhance the way that your business communicates internally and with customers. For example, call waiting, forwarding and call transferring come as standard with virtually any VoIP telephone system. These facilities don’t incur any extra cost and don’t scratch the surface of all the value-add services available to VoIP users.

With PSTN, call management features such as call waiting and call transferring are available. Unfortunately, providers usually charge for these features with PSTN and depending on the provider, they may take longer to set up. However, there are many call management facilities available on VoIP telephone systems that aren’t available at all with PSTN systems. For example:

• Auto-Attendant
• Call Forwarding
• Voicemail to Email
• Soft Phones

This is just a small selection of the services available with VoIP that aren’t available with a traditional PSTN system. These features can be revolutionary for communication, so you need a telephone system that offers them.

VoIP has Lower Costs Upfront and Long-Term

Businesses can save a lot of money by moving over to a hosted VoIP telephone system. IP telephony is typically much cheaper than traditional telephony for numerous reasons. VoIP is primarily cheaper because it uses the internet to make calls, so calls are typically not charged according to the length of call or distance.

Setting up a VoIP telephone system is usually much cheaper than setting up a traditional telephone system. VoIP is typically plug and play, as your provider will configure your system remotely. Depending on the complexity of your setup, you may not even need an engineer onsite to set up your system for you. Compare this with a PSTN telephone system, where an engineer will have to come to your building, install hardware, and configure your entire system. This could take days, depending on how many users you have and other factors. The expense involved is very significant.

After the initial setup, VoIP is still cheaper! A VoIP licence, handset, support and maintenance is usually a few pounds per month. With a traditional system, a line alone can cost around £100 per month. That’s not considering the handsets you need, or any added call management features.

Data suggests that productivity is enhanced when using a VoIP telephone system, rather than a traditional PSTN system. How much money are you saving because your staff are more productive? Depending on the number of staff you have and how much they’re getting paid, the increased productivity of your team could save you hundreds or thousands of pounds alone.

VoIP has Greater Call Quality

When businesses first began using VoIP, a lot of users noted issues and it was generally believed that VoIP call quality was lower than traditional landline call quality. Evidently, this was a massive concern for a lot of businesses considering switching over to IP telephony. Now, VoIP call quality is just as good as, if not better than, PSTN.

VoIP jitter and dropped packets can lead to poor VoIP calls, but VoIP call quality is high even on 3G and 4G connections now. VoIP call quality has never been better and it’ll only get better as the technology continues to develop.

The PSTN infrastructure is old, with providers moving away from it. While the call quality on a traditional phone line is a good quality for the most part, it is never going to improve to the standard of VoIP now that IP telephony call quality is so much better.

As you may be aware, VoIP telephone systems are held in the cloud and IP telephony generally depends on the internet. For businesses wanting to ensure they have a reliable telephone system, that raises an important question: does VoIP work if the internet is down?

So, does VoIP work if the internet is down? No, VoIP does not work if the internet is down. However, you and your provider can put procedures in place to ensure you don’t lose your telephone system if your internet drops.

The fact that VoIP doesn’t work without the internet might concern you. While VoIP phone systems are ultra-reliable (as I detailed here) if your internet connection is poor it will let you down.

Read on to find out how you can create the perfect environment for VoIP and how you can ensure you still receive calls even if your internet does drop!

Ways To Keep Your VoIP System Working When Your Internet Drops

If you know that your internet connection isn’t the most reliable, loss of phone service is a big concern. However, here are several ways that you can keep your system working even if your main internet connection fails.

Built-In Call Continuity

When assessing which VoIP system would best meet your requirements, ask the provider if the system has any built-in call continuity features. If your internet drops, call continuity features protect your business.

Built-in call continuity can take many shapes. Some providers offer an automatic failover function, where all calls are instantly routed to another location if the intended target phones lose connectivity. With some providers, it’s as simple as phoning them up and requesting they set up a call divert for you until your internet connection returns.

For hosted VoIP customers with handsets, customers can simply take their handsets to a location with an internet connection, plug them in and then work as usual. If you have more than one office nearby, your staff can simply move to the other office and continue working as usual. Alternatively, your employees can take their handsets home and plug them into their home connections to continue working productively.

Most VoIP telephone systems these days have the built-in continuity and redundancy features that I’ve mentioned above. However, remember to check that your provider has these features available before you choose to go with them.

Install A Backup Internet Connection

Installing a backup internet connection is common practice for businesses that simply cannot afford to go without their internet. With a backup internet connection, you can ensure that you don’t lose your VoIP phone service if your main internet connection drops.

If your business uses a VoIP telephone system, it’s more important than ever to have something in place in case your internet drops.

If you have a backup connection, your VoIP phone system and other technologies will automatically switch connection if your primary connection fails. This ensures VoIP resiliency, no matter what happens to your primary connection. Since the connections are from separate providers, you protect yourself if the loss of connection is an ISP issue.

In some setups, VoIP phone systems are running on a separate connection at all times, regardless of main connection performance. “We install a second connection whenever we set up VoIP for a business,” says Michael Fontana, director of Optionbox, a provider of business telecommunication solutions. “We install a second connection to ensure dedicated bandwidth for the customer’s VoIP telephone system. This means higher call quality, greater stability, and maximum uptime.”

Have A Backup Power Supply Installed

A power outage can cause major issues for your business. Not only will it destroy productivity and efficiency in the office, but an outage can also take down your VoIP telephone system if all your network equipment suddenly stops working.

With a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) you can keep your phone system and network online throughout a power outage.

Many disasters can lead to power failure, but an uninterruptible power supply will allow your team to continue working regardless. A UPS will ensure that your internet connection and phone system still works, so you won’t miss important calls as a result.

A power outage is chaotic and problematic anyway, but it is more so if your phones suddenly become unavailable and you know you’re missing calls from your customers. While the call continuity features I previously mentioned help here, it’s much less stressful simply to keep your system running without interruption with a UPS.

The effectiveness of a UPS will differ based on how long the power outage lasts. If your business goes without power for days, it might be better to quickly enact your remote working strategy and move your staff to different locations. A UPS will only power your network for a matter of hours at best, so it won’t keep your internet and phone system working for days on end.

So, while VoIP will not work without the internet, there are several ways that you can ensure your VoIP system is resilient against internet-related issues.

A good VoIP provider will ensure your network environment is capable of reliably supporting your VoIP telephone system. However, not all VoIP providers are made equal, so it’s important to ask questions about call continuity and disaster recovery features before you sign up for a new system.

As the traditional telephone network rapidly becomes redundant, more businesses move over to VoIP telephone systems. If you’re in the position where you’ll need to move over to VoIP, you probably want to know the advantages and disadvantages of it.

I created this blog post to give you straight answers on the advantages and disadvantages of VoIP, so here they are:

VoIP Advantages and Disadvantages

Advantages	Disadvantages
Low Costs	Reliable Internet Needed
Higher Voice Quality	Providers Not Made Equal
Flexible	Non-Technical People May Have Difficulties Setting Up
Scalable

As you can see, there are many VoIP advantages that will transform the way your business communicates if you’re still using traditional telephony. However, there are some notable disadvantages too, such as the need for reliable internet. Fortunately, those disadvantages are easily overcome, as I’m going to explain below.

VoIP Advantages

There are several VoIP telephone system advantages that all businesses using VoIP will benefit from. Here’s each advantage broken down into greater detail.

Low Costs

VoIP telephone systems are cheaper for businesses in numerous ways.

First and foremost, setting up VoIP is usually much cheaper than setting up a PBX. A PBX connects several landline phones in an office and requires a lot of onsite hardware. This means large upfront costs for businesses of any size, making it completely unaffordable for most.

Even small businesses wanting a PBX have to invest in expensive physical hardware. With a VoIP systems, no onsite hardware is required to set up the telephone system. Since broadband powers the service, all you need onsite is handsets (although these are actually optional) and a reliable broadband connection.

Depending on the number of users and the service you choose, you might not even need an engineer to set up your VoIP telephone system. Combine all these factors and VoIP systems are evidently much cheaper to set up than more traditional systems.

Secondly, VoIP is cheaper in the long run. According to data from IDT Express, VoIP calls can be 40 – 80% cheaper than calls using the PSTN network. The main reason for this is lower-than-ever data carriage costs. As high-speed broadband availability has increased, the cost of data carriage costs have dramatically reduced. Calls using the traditional infrastructure have stayed the same price, hence VoIP calls being so much cheaper.

Another way that VoIP is cheaper is that there are little or no repair and maintenance costs. Typically, support and maintenance fees are bundled in with your VoIP licence (basically a VoIP telephone line) meaning you never have unexpected costs to pay. If your PBX goes bust, you’ll have a massive expense to suddenly pay, which you’ll never get with VoIP.

You only pay for what you need with VoIP because you can add more features and users as you require them. This offers unprecedented scalability to users who no longer need to pay for services and lines they’re not using.

Higher Voice Quality

When VoIP first became available to consumers, it quickly gained a bad reputation for poor call quality. Voice quality was awful and calls would drop for no reason, which was massively off-putting to businesses for all the obvious reasons.

These days, VoIP calls tend to be very high quality with crisp and clear communications enabled by better broadband. Most businesses have fast and stable internet thanks to broadband developments over the last few years. As long as your business has fast and stable internet, voice quality will never be an issue on a VoIP phone call.

You don’t need to have the finest of internet connections for good quality VoIP calls, either. Virtually every business broadband solution will enable clear communication over the internet. VoIP calls are clear over 3G and 4G connections, for the most part, never mind business broadband!

Flexible

VoIP telephone systems are completely mobile-ready. You can make and receive calls no matter where you are as long as you have a data connection. The mobile-readiness of VoIP is one of its greatest advantages, as it means you can work on the go as required and never miss an important call again.

If you know that you’re going to be out of the office for a period of time, you can point all calls to your mobile phone. In fact, several providers have mobile applications available that give you all the features of your office telephone system on the go. You can fully manage your telephone system through a web interface anywhere that you have an internet connection. You can make changes and set up features such as call redirects from your mobile.

As the workforce becomes increasingly mobile, your business can be incredibly flexible if you have a VoIP telephone system. No matter the location of your employees, they can remain productive and stay in touch easily for remote collaboration.

Scalable

If you predict that your business will grow in the future, you probably want a telephone system that will grow with it. As you hire new employees, you want to easily add them to your telephone system quickly and without massive expense. A VoIP telephone system offers greater scalability than any other telephone system available.

Adding new users to your telephone system is as easy as phoning or emailing your provider to sort a new licence. Licences can be added to a VoIP system within mere minutes, so you can quickly have your new user set up to receive and make phone calls.

As you require new features, VoIP makes it easy to add them. As the number of phone calls you receive picks up, you can quickly enable new features to make handling calls easier, for example. This is just another way that a VoIP telephone system would scale with your business as your requirements grow.

VoIP Disadvantages

While you can’t get much better than a VoIP telephone systems, there are of course some disadvantages to be aware of.

Reliable Internet Needed

The quality of your VoIP telephone system will depend greatly on the internet connection that you have. If you have a poor internet connection with low bandwidth, your VoIP system will inevitably suffer.

While VoIP doesn’t use as much bandwidth as you might imagine, the bandwidth you require will differ based on the number of concurrent calls your business will be making. On virtually any internet connection, one or two concurrent calls will be fine. If you plan to have a lot of concurrent calls, however, you will of course need better internet.

How much bandwidth does VoIP need? Per concurrent call, 100Kbps up and down is required. So if you have 10 concurrent calls, 1Mbps up and down would be needed. However, this is a minimum. The greater the bandwidth, the greater the call quality and stability.

Some providers will help you provide connection issues by installing a second broadband service for your business. In this situation, the broadband service will only be used for your VoIP telephone system, ensuring high-quality calls at all times. A second internet connection means the other processes going on in your office have no impact at all on the functionality of your telephone system. You’ll also avoid any issues with latency and jitter if you have a dedicated connection.

Not All VoIP Providers Are Made Equal

It’s an unfortunate fact that not all VoIP providers are made equal. While some VoIP providers offer solutions that you can rely on, others will let you down. When choosing a VoIP provider for your business, here are some aspects of their service to look at to ensure you end up with a reliable system:

• Network Resilience
• Failover Options
• Support

The resilience of a VoIP provider’s network is very important. You’d be surprised at the vast number of VoIP providers with poor, unreliable networks. You need to know how quickly your VoIP provider’s network can recover from a breakdown or disruption in service. After all, your telephone system will be unavailable to you until their network is operational again.

Why do VoIP providers sometimes ignore resilience when designing their network? Unfortunately, it all comes down to time and money. Some VoIP providers avoid investing in resilience because it’s expensive and time-consuming to ensure such a large network can bounce back quickly.

Before deciding on a provider, you need to find out what failover options they have should there be a disruption in service. Whether there’s a problem on your end or the provider’s end, it’s crucial that you don’t lose your telephone system. Speak to any potential provider and ask them what failover options they have. If they can’t provide you with any credible options, they’re not the right provider for you.

Every business needs support every now and then with their telephone system. If you encounter any issues or need advice, you need to know that you can rely on the support of your VoIP provider.

Before choosing a VoIP provider, look into how reliable their support is. Also look into how much it’s going to cost you whenever you need any support. Are there any support guarantees in place, such as an assured response or fix time? If not, how do you know that you can rely on the provider for support when you really need it?

According to a 2019 BrightLocal report, 60% of consumers want to call small local businesses on the phone. On the other hand, only 16% of consumers would send the business an email. This statistic clearly demonstrates the importance of having a reliable phone system for your business. As businesses gradually move over to cloud-hosted telephone systems, it’s only natural to wonder how reliable cloud-hosted systems are.

Are VoIP phone systems reliable? Yes, VoIP phone systems are reliable. Assuming you have a suitable internet connection, you will experience high-quality calls with 99.9% uptime.

So, you can expect 99.9% uptime with a good provider. While that answers the question of whether VoIP phone systems are reliable or not, it doesn’t tell us why VoIP systems are reliable. Throughout the rest of this blog post, I’ll explain why VoIP systems are reliable and how providers ensure reliability for businesses such as yours.

Why Is VoIP So Reliable?

Although VoIP reliability differs based on several factors, most providers sell their VoIP solution with an advertising point of 99.9% uptime. Providers clearly know they can guarantee this uptime, or service-level agreements wouldn’t exist. So, how are VoIP providers ensuring 99.9% uptime for consumers?

Hosted In Several Secure Data Centres

Cloud-based phone systems are hosted in secure data centres. However, what happens in the unlikely situation that a data centre goes down?

Top VoIP providers host their cloud-based phone systems across multiple data centres in several locations. If one data centre had a problem, another centre would take over to ensure your phone system continues to work correctly. This automatic failover offers vital protection for both providers and consumers, because who knows when something could go wrong?

By using multiple data centres, providers can ensure that phone systems continue to work as usual regardless of the status of individual data centres. If a data centre did go down, you wouldn’t notice any impact at all on the way your VoIP system works as another centre takes over.

Before going with a VoIP provider, make sure you ask about how they can help you avoid losing your phone system functionality should their data centres encounter an issue. Many providers offer several solutions that can ensure you never miss a call, no matter what happens. I’m going to explain some of these solutions later in my post.

Constant Monitoring and Out-Of-Hours Maintenance

The infrastructure that hosts cloud-based phone systems is constantly monitored. And if maintenance is required, it’s completed out of typical working hours to ensure you don’t notice any impact on your phone system.

The biggest VoIP providers will likely host thousands of business VoIP telephone systems. As a result, they have massive teams of monitoring and maintenance technicians ensuring everything works as it should do.

You can rest assured that VoIP providers use reliable data centres to host their cloud-based telephone systems. Data centres typically use some form of an environmental monitoring system that flags up any faults before they impact hosted services, such as VoIP.

Continuity Procedures and Features

Many VoIP providers can put continuity procedures and features into place to protect your business in the unlikely event of your VoIP telephone system being unavailable.

Despite VoIP telephony’s increasing popularity, businesses do worry about losing their phone system due to their internet dropping. As you’re probably aware, a VoIP telephone system will not work without the internet. Fortunately, cloud-based VoIP systems are increasingly ‘mobile-ready’, meaning you can still use your telephone system if your internet drops.

All the call functionality of VoIP systems are available through laptops, PCs and most importantly, mobile phones. Features such as call transfers and call holding can be used via mobile and desktop applications. Essentially, if your office internet connection drops, you can use mobile broadband to ensure you don’t miss any important calls.

What happens if your VoIP telephone system is unavailable, due to a fault on your provider’s side? All hope isn’t lost where virtual numbers are concerned. On several occasions in the past, we have found ourselves in a position where the VoIP system we use has been unavailable. In these situations, we have been able to point our virtual numbers at mobile phone numbers, enabling us to continue making and receiving calls. Good providers can help you sort this out, so you’re protected whether your internet fails or your VoIP system.

Failover Connections Dedicated To Business Continuity

Depending on your budget, your provider may install a second failover connection purely dedicated to protecting your business should your main connection fail.

You might see a second internet connection as an unnecessary cost. However, how much would it cost your business if you had to go without your internet connection for hours, or perhaps days? That’s why, if you can afford it, providers will install two separate connections for you.

Having two connections provided by separate ISPs is one way of protecting your business. If one ISP’s connection fails, all your systems will run on the second ISP’s connection. Some businesses have three connections: two from their favoured ISP, and one from a second ISP in case their primary connections fail altogether.

If your primary internet connection fails, a second internet connection provides your business with near-complete VoIP continuity. You won’t lose your essential telephone system, no matter what happens to your internet connection.

Is VoIP More Reliable Than Traditional Telephony?

Landlines are known for their reliability, with call quality and lack of outages particularly notable. However, landlines are becoming obsolete and are no longer meeting the needs of consumers. There’s a general consensus in the telecom industry that VoIP is a much more reliable option – and VoIP systems are only getting better.

VoIP systems have been getting better for years and they’ve now reached the point where they’re better than landlines. VoIP systems are ever-improving, however, with no signs of slowing down yet. As you may have heard, BT is aiming to shut down the traditional ISDN/PSTN network by 2025 latest. This decision has meant a much greater focus by all providers on improving VoIP.

VoIP systems can be used to make and receive calls on broadband, 3G, 4G and now 5G. With the ability to make and receive high-quality calls on all these different connections, VoIP is evidently more reliable and future-proof than traditional telephony.

Since its invention, VoIP has consistently evolved. All signs suggest that VoIP will continue to evolve for many years to come as we head closer to unified communications. It’s worth reiterating that VoIP will continue improving for many years since the telecom sector is investing heavily and will do so long-term.

Conclusion

VoIP is evidently far superior to traditional telephony. A VoIP system is an incredibly reliable option, suitable for a business of any size. If you have any other reasons that VoIP is so reliable, I’d love to hear them! Share your reasons below in the comments.