VOIP telephony
- At February 26, 2014
- By liquid
- In News
- 0
We have been a little sceptical about VOIP telephony having had a few bad reports of companies who had adopted this technology in its infancy.
Connections could be intermittent and sound quality less than desirable but, with the recent installation of our fibre optic upgrade and a need to replace our ageing switchboard equipment, we decided to take the plunge.
Using Draytek’s PABX routers and Yealink’s VOIP telephones our telephone and fax facilities now run over Zen’s VOIP connections.
In reality we have noticed improved connection quality with no apparent degradation of internet connection speeds. The pricing of the Draytek and Yealink equipment made the change to VOIP considerably cheaper than the cost of replacing our traditional switchboard equipment whilst the call costs are comparable with our previous, traditional provider.
The one huge advantage for us is that, since the telephones run over the internet, extension phones can be placed in any geographical location and simply work as if they were on another desk in the same office. This allows for telephones at remote offices, homes or even software on a laptop acting as a telephone to work as an extension to the main office telephony network. This results in free calls between offices and homes and allows home workers to answer incoming calls and transfer calls between handsets as if they were sitting in the office. You could even take a call on a beach in the Caribbean on a laptop (as long as you had internet connection) and the caller would think you were in the office!
Calls between VOIP phones are free so when calling between home and office or calling another company with a VOIP system you don’t pay. When calling a number on a traditional landline Zen’s VOIP servers reroute your call out onto the normal telephone system and the connection is made seamlessly. You are then charged at a comparable rate to a normal telephone call for the rerouting.
As providers of Draytek and Yealink equipment and partners with Zen we are well positioned to advise on VOIP configurations and installations should this new technology be of interest.