VoIP Provider Reviews

What is business VoIP?

VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) uses your Internet connection to place and receive calls. Business VoIP and residential VoIP use the same technology. The only difference is that business VoIP includes the additional software of a private Branch Exchange (PBX). The PBX, or Virtual PBX (VPBX) as it is sometimes called, enables businesses to connect all their telephones into one internal system. The VPBX offers additional features not available for the home or residential services. These services include such as hunt groups, call forwarding, and extension dialing. Business VoIP may also improve the quality of calls by including an Internet connection to route calls over a private network.

What types of PBX Services are offered with VoIP?

There are three basic types of PBX’s

• Hosted Services (Virtual PBX)
• Owned Services
• SIP Trunking Services Most small businesses will choose the Hosted Virtual PBX from a vendor. The reasons for this are many, but one of the most obvious benefits is that by leaving up the expensive development costs and expertise to a dependable host company, you will have more time to do the things that you do best. Hosted PBX (Virtual PBX) With the hosted PBX phone service you will have all the advantages of VoIP without many of the disadvantages such as the huge cash out-lay involved in purchasing your own network equipment.
• Because the hardware is at the provider’s place of business, there is no need for the hassles of service calls and the time associated with them. Your provider can make any necessary corrections to your system remotely.
• Maintaining redundancy and backup are expensive activities. Again these are the headaches of your provide.
• You don’t have to worry about the expense involved with keeping up with the latest technology. Enchancements will be the responsibility of your hosted PBX Service provider.
• You don’t have to hire, or assign the duties of training new employees how to use the PBX system to an existing employee. Your VPBX provider will provide the necessary assistance to enable your new employees to easily navigate and use your VoIP telephone system.

Owned VPBX Services

Such services are rare. In these cases, the company would hire a VoIP expert to develop their won system in-house. All the hardware as well as the software would be contained on the same premises as your company. You would be responsible for the expense and ongoing maintenance of all hardware, software and services. Depending upon the type of service contract that you had with the vendor who created your VPBX for you, you would have to pay them accordingly for any work beyond the original contract for the development of your VPBX. Unless you have a lot of money and some very special needs, this approach is not recommended as it would likely be more expensive than traditional telephony.

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