There was once a day and age when placing a call was an expensive, cumbersome experience. From a rotary dial to the brick-sized cell phone, every age of telephony has improved upon the last. Now coupled with cloud technology, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) offers the flexibility, scalability, and always-on performance today's businesses need.
But what about VoIP phone systems helps them stand above the rest? Supported by cloud calling, which integrates meetings, messaging, and contact center into the calling experience, VoIP offers appealing capabilities such as lower costs, higher accessibility, and unprecedented portability that the traditional Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) simply can't provide. Given the rise of hybrid work, feature-rich collaborative solutions are becoming increasingly critical for businesses across industries.
In fact, 98% of knowledge workers believe future meetings will include remote participants. With these trends in mind, it's easy to see why businesses are flocking to cloud-based VoIP calling to empower their workforce. The trend is a reality now: for instance, more than 39 million cloud callers use VoIP technology from Webex to make 8 billion monthly calls.
In this guide, we'll explore the ins and outs of VoIP phone calling to help you identify the best service for your business needs.
Who uses VoIP calling technology?
A person wearing a noise-cancelling headset uses VoIP calling technology via a mobile phone.
Now that we have a basic understanding of what VoIP is, let's discuss who uses it. Many people leverage VoIP phone services in both their personal and professional lives. When it comes to the former, video conferencing is VoIP's most popular use, but individuals also use VoIP any time they use services like Skype or WhatsApp to place a call.
Given the migration to hybrid work and VoIP calling's range of capabilities, VoIP will only continue to grow in popularity. According to Statista, businesses in the U.S. added more than 35 million VoIP lines between 2010 and 2018, reaching a total of 41.6 million. And during the same time, residential VoIP lines increased from about 20 million to more than 76 million.
Businesses today rely on VoIP to provide secure, reliable, and flexible tools that enable employees to connect and collaborate in real-time. With integrated enterprise-grade calling features, virtual meetings and messaging apps, employees can increase productivity while working from anywhere. Some VoIP features even allow participants to easily transition a call to a meeting and record the entire exchange for future reference. With hybrid work taking on many forms, VoIP makes it easier to connect and continue work regardless of circumstances.
VoIP calling technology can also ease the burden of management by providing a centralized platform from which to monitor performance and administer the entire phone system. For example, VoIP platforms can optimize calls within an organization, streamline bandwidth utilization, and improve call quality and performance.
How does VoIP work?
a diagram shows the 5 steps of how VoIP works, from Calls originating from VoIP phones to the VoIP call reaching its destination.
In contrast to traditional PSTN, VoIP doesn't use physical phone lines or cable systems. VoIP enables users to make or receive phone calls via a broadband internet connection, also called IP telephony. In this sense, VoIP is the underlying technology that enables the transmission of voice and other multimedia content over the internet. Before going deeper, let's decipher the VoIP acronym a bit further:
Voice over: VoIP packages voice signals into smaller data packets over the internet and sends them to the recipient.
Internet Protocol: Web-connected devices using their unique “IP address” identify themselves to each other on the internet.
Basically, VoIP phone calls synthesize your analog voice signal into a digital format before transferring it over the internet to an awaiting IP address. If you're calling a regular telephone number, that digital signal is converted into a traditional signal before reaching its recipient. Whether you're calling a VoIP device or a regular PSTN phone, VoIP technology ensures all calls are connected within milliseconds.
There are three primary types of VoIP calling:
a diagram shows the three types of VoIP calling, including VoIP software solutions, specialty phones, and an Analog Telephone Adapter.
1. Computers and mobile devices
Many VoIP solutions feature software that allows the user to place calls directly from their computer with a headset and microphone.
2. IP telephone
Specialty phones are designed to connect directly with your computer to start placing calls over the internet. With smartphones, VoIP calling is as easy as downloading an app.
3. Analog phone
With an Analog Telephone Adapter, you can convert your regular phone's analog signal into a digital format that can be transferred over the internet.
That's right — VoIP phone systems allow you to place cloud calls on a phone, computer, or mobile device. Only an internet connection is required to start VoIP calling, which means adoption and migration from traditional phone systems can be simple.
Who Is In–Telecom? In-Telecom is a U.S.-based company, founded in 2009 as a consulting and business telephone system solution provider. Since then, we have evolved into a full service technology company providing customized solutions for cloud telephone, voice over IP, managed IT services, video conferencing, cyber security & data backup, physical security, internet services, and more. We attribute much of our success to the ability to supply the highest level of customer service and technical expertise, thus becoming the singular solution provider for our customers. Telecom can help steer your company toward efficiency and success. All our solutions are customized and scaled to your specific workflow needs and your budget.