VoIP
has a lot of advantage over the traditional phone system. The main
reason for which people are so massively turning to VoIP technology is
the cost. VoIP is said to be cheap, but most people use it for free.
Your
VoIP phone system consists of two key pieces of hardware:
The
phone system that manages communication between your office phones and
between your phones and the outside world The phones themselves
1. Phone System Equipment
1. PBX or phone systems that handle processes like call
handling, routing, automated responses etc. It’s like a private phone
exchange located within your office.
2. Businesses with
existing ‘traditional’ PBX systems who don’t want to replace them due to
the expense, can retain their PBX and connect to VoIP with the help of
some additional VoIP communication equipment.
2. VoIP Phones
1. PC based ‘soft phone’ – This allows you to use a
headset plugged into your PC USB port with an application to make or
receive calls. You can also install a soft phone application on your
mobile phone.
2. Standalone VoIP phone - A VoIP phone looks similar
to a regular office phone but doesn’t need any adapters. It plugs
straight into the Ethernet port on your network and this is completely
separate from your PC. A VoIP phone offers the best call quality
3. ATA (analogue telephone adapter) - A telephone
adapter plugs into your network and your regular phone. This is
completely separate from your PC and it doesn’t need to be switched on
to make calls.