A Simple Guide to VoIP: What is it and how does it work?

Life is simpler than it used to be – today, you can make a phone call anywhere anytime as long as you have an internet connection, a smart speaker, a headset, and voice over IP (VoIP). But what exactly is VoIP?

VoIP is a type of technology that converts your voice into digital signals and thus allowing you to communicate directly from a VoIP phone or a computer. In simple terms, this is a kind of phone service delivered through the internet. Today, many VoIP providers for businesses can offer this service to your company. 

How VoIP works 

The VoIP technology enables the traditional telephony services to work over a computer network using packet-switched protocols. The packet-switched VoIP gathers the voice signals into packets using a similar electronic envelope. The packets are transmitted over a VoIP-enabled and compatible network like WAN and LAN.

Why should businesses use VoIP?

Most businesses spend a lot on phone calls and messaging. VoIP has become an ideal solution to offer employees a reliable phone service at a reduced cost. VoIP outsmarts the traditional phone service because it is relatively cheaper and more flexible. It also comes with many features you are not likely to find on your conventional phone service.

Today, instead of your business having a PBX on the site, you only need well-configured VoIP desk phones, and you are good to go. You can communicate with all your employees in different departments and improve your productivity. 

VoIP is providing wireless communication for your teams 

With VoIP, you will make and receive voice calls over the internet. It means your business is going wireless. You use your office internet to connect to a communication network in your office. If your office is already wired to the Ethernet, you don’t have to invest more money into buying additional copper wire to use your VoIP business phones. 

If you want to make a phone call in your business, you should register the VoIP phone and open an account. It is a simple process of connecting your phones to your local service provider to communicate easily.  

Some VoIP providers support IP phone booting for specific types of phones. It means if you are using a boot server, you spend less time registering your VoIP phone. It takes your IT teams at least half an hour to complete the process of registering your VoIP phone, and you don’t have to call your local ISP or phone company to have the phones connected. The VoIP phones become active as soon as you have them connected. 

A typical VoIP phone is almost identical to the normal business phone you are using. It comes with a handset, a receiver, speaker, and button placement. These features make them almost indistinguishable from ordinary business phones. 

They use the same keyboard as your landline phones. The keyboards have numbers and letters that enable you to enter texts. Therefore, if you own a landline phone in your business at the moment, you won’t have a hard time transitioning to a VoIP phone.