What is VoIP and What Can it Do for your Small Business?

What Is VoIP?

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is the family of technologies that allow IP networks to be used for voice applications, such as telephony, voice instant messaging, and teleconferencing. VoIP entails solutions at almost every layer of an IP network--from specialized voice applications all the way down to low-level quality measures that keep those applications running smoothly.

Why Asterisk Based IP-PBXs?

If you've done even a little research into business phone system options, you're familiar with the problem: Most suppliers offer expensive and inflexible phone systems that are tuned to their needs, not yours. These systems are known as "CLOSED" telecommunications systems since only the manufacturer of the system is capable of upgrading or making changes in the system. The truth is that most telephone manufacturers don't want you to have flexibility or choice; they want you to be locked into their product and product cycles. Why? It's simple. Proprietary or "closed" model gives vendors the ability to charge customers to use their products, charge to fix them, and charge again when they need enhancement. This proprietary model gets even better for the vendor and worse for the customer as customers become tied to the vendor's specific methods and capabilities. The cost of switching away from the vendor becomes enormous, creating significant barriers to change.

The systems we sell and support are "OPEN" systems - they are not proprietary. They don't force you to use only one manufacturer or one vendor. Flexibility and choice are preserved for you and your business now and down the road. These systems allow you to implement flexible dial plans that support just about any application you can think of (and many you can't). And, they offer all for the features and functionality of a system ten times as much. You can configure them to use any traditional analog phone or traditional phone company circuit (e.g. Sprint, Verizon, etc). In addition, they support VoIP phones from any vendor and VoIP services from any standards-compliant VoIP service provider. Plus, they support just about every important network protocol used in the telephone world. And, if all that weren't enough, they integrate seamlessly with your existing computer network sharing the same network and cabling infrastructure you probably already have in place today (thus eliminating the need for extra cabling just for your phone system).