New businesses can now let their customers contact them for free or inexpensively with the use of Voice over IP telephony, without having to lease the ever more expensive toll free numbers offered by many telecoms companies around the world. With Voice over IP telephony, local numbers can be setup in scores of towns and cities across a country at relatively low costs. These can then connect to a central Voice over IP service provider, which will allow free or low rate calls to you from your customers.

Internet telephony or Voice over IP as it is more commonly known has been hailed as the next big thing in the telecommunications world for quite some time. In the past it has been plagued with poor sound and connection quality, as well as complex and frustrating installations.

With huge advances in Voice over IP technology in the last few years, you no longer have to sit at your computer in order to make a phone call over the Internet using Voice over IP. It is now possible to use an ordinary phone, connected to a Voice over IP adaptor (gateway). Some specialised Voice over IP phones (IP phones) have this technology built into their circuitry, effectively allowing you to plug and play.

Voice over IP splits your voice into Internet Protocol Data Packets. These packets are then routed over the Internet. This makes it a lot cheaper for Voice over IP service providers to carry your calls. Using this method Voice over IP service providers only have to pay a small termination fee at the point where they drop your call off. This in turn make Voice over IP extremely cost effective for those companies who cannot afford the high costs associated with those of toll free numbers. It would then become possible for example to rent phone numbers in major cities across a country at cheap rates, and people in these cities would then be able to talk to you for just the cost of a local call.

In the past few years Voice over IP has matured and is fast becoming the way to make cheap rate calls both nationally and internationally. In fact most major telecoms companies around the world, are now gearing up to charge us for the amount of data sent or received, as opposed to the length of call time. Many businesses are taking early advantage of the huge cost savings for them and their customers, through the implementation of Voice over IP telephony.

Thanks for reading my article. Please feel free to give it a rating at the bottom of this page.

*********************************************************************************

Jason Morris is co-author, search engine optimization and marketing consultant of Business Phone Systems Direct. An established communications company, offering advice and implementation of high quality business phone systems.
*********************************************************************************

Share This

Skype is already changing the way we do we do business, even as you’re reading
this. A little piece of software that uses VoIP (Voice Over IP) and P2P (Peer-to-Peer)
technology, it created waves after waves of excitement, anticipation and even
frustration since its launch.

Skype (sometimes pronounced as Skaip or Skypee) is a softphone application that
allows you to make phone calls from your PC direct to another Skype user, or any
regular fixed or mobile telephone. The cost is extremely cheap, and the quality has
seen massive leaps of continuous improvement since it’s launch in 2003. Everyone
knows all that.

Here’s what most people don’t know: Skype can be used as powerful and effective
marketing tool for any small business. If you want to reach an international market,
get telephone inquiries and leads from China, or even if you just want to use it to
communicate with your business buddies, you should explore the hidden potential
of Skype.

The latest phenomenon to be related to Skype is “Skypecasting” which is basically
having teleconferences using Skype. In fact Skpecasting itself is a term coined from
“Podcasting”. With Skypecasting you can have online teleconferences for free. The
latest version of Skype should support more than 100 users simultaneously so
numbers should not be a problem.

However, there are more basic Skype applications that can also be used to get your
sales and marketing efforts across to your target market quickly.

SkypeIn, a feature of Skype still in beta, allows you to create virtual numbers in
many different countries. If you maximize on this fact, you can literally have “virtual
offices” all around the world, even if you’re a home based business entrepreneur
with no staff, an embarrassing budget and limited time.

There are many third party applications that enhance the basic software. If you
know the correct ones to use, you can literally build a “virtual call center” from your
desktop that has all the feature of a real call center: your own personal secretary,
day-and-time manager, call routing and call waiting, conditional call forwarding,
language translations and much more.

If the “off-the-shelf” version just doesn’t cut it for your business needs, then you
can customize and adapt Skype into your own proprietary systems and software.
You can choose to do this in-house, or outsource it to experts all over the world. If
you know where and how to do this, you can create a powerful telemarketing
application that cost pennies a day compared to the traditional solutions. It will be
much more time-efficient, too.

Of course, there are more third-party applications being developed as you’re
reading this. In fact, much like the iPod, there’s an entire sub-industry built around
Skype, including USB phones, lead generators, Skype “call centers” and much more.
All in all, it’s an exciting time for telecommunications over the web.

G. Krishnan is the author of “Internet Telephony Secrets”, one of the first guides to
marketing with VoIP and Skype. For more information please visit
http://www.voipandme.com.

Share This

Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, services are provided for two segments: businesses and consumers. Consumer VoIP is targeted at homes and hence referred to as residential VoIP. As with any other consumer product, the demand for residential VoIP is driven by cost and quality of service.

With more homes taking to the broadband services for entertainment, news and online purchases, voice-based services, almost free, have caused the consumers to switch to the VoIP telephony. The demand is such that according to Frost and Sullivan Research, consumer VoIP is expected to grow 77 times in the next three years, and the market is expected to generate $700 million in revenues by 2007.

The residential VoIP components are ATAs, phones with built-in routers, IP phones and other hardware accessories. Software services are also slowly catching up. Software providers like Skype have recorded thousands of downloads so far, and the software is free upon registration. At this moment, the residential VoIP market is dominated by hardware-based services.

In the hardware-based service, the market is dominated by ATAs, as they are still cheaper than phones with built-in routers. But with the market zooming, prices of the latter will come down, and it is expected that the standard in the future will be phones with built-in routers and IP phones.

The advantages of residential VoIP over PSTN lines are that the calls to the subscribers of the same service are free or cost almost nothing, and the area codes to which the calls are placed are free and are spread across geography, eliminating the long-distance calls and international calls. Some service providers provide connectivity to GSM networks. The convergence of voice and data enable transmission of voice, video and also synthesis of voice mails.

For homes, the convergence of voice and data through the Internet is an advancement towards flexibility, as communication and computing can happen together.

VOIP provides detailed information on VOIP, VOIP Providers, VOIP Phone System, VOIP Solutions and more. VOIP is affiliated with Wireless IP Phones.

Share This