In the last decade or so, internet has seemingly become more commonplace than landline telephony. Many young people have never bothered to get a landline for their phone, due to the accessibility of mobile telephony and internet-based communication.
In the world of business, telephony is still alive and well, and a crucial part of business-to-customer communication. Having a trusted partner, like a Business IT Support London Partner can make the biggest difference when it comes to choosing a telephony system. Traditionally, telephone systems use technologies that connected to the Public Switched Telephone Network (PTSN). But, there is a new type of telephony that has shaken up the way we think about telephone connection and infrastructure – there are a few different technologies that come under its banner, but it is colloquially known as Internet telephony.
How does Internet telephony work?
The technology for internet-based telephony has actually been around for several decades now. Essentially it comes down to converting the voice of the speaker into digital signals, so that they may be transmitted as data over the internet – this is at odds with the entirely analog method of transmitting a speakers’ voice, which would involved wired networks at every step of the process.
The prevailing technology for internet telephony is the Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). When seeing what Managed Service Providers UK Businesses use, it is clear that VoIP accredited ones are the best. Internet telephony is successful because, after converting users voice into digital media, it encodes the data to make it optimised to transmission over the internet – because of this, internet telephony is very reliable, and not prone to the latency issues that we see in video streaming.
So, why is Internet telephony the ideal choice for businesses in 2021?
It’s highly efficient
Internet telephony is not only cost-effective but labour effective. For instance, a traditional business telephone networks often involved not only the use of the Public Switched Network, but also something called a Private Branch Exchange (known as a PBX), which is a private telephone exchange that is used by businesses for internet communication – it is a way of avoiding the costs associated with calling over the PSTN.
Cloud telephony bypasses all of this. It does not need to connected to the Public Switched Network, and not does it need a purpose built telephone exchange, because everything happens over the internet. The installation costs associated with Voice over Internet Protocol are a mere fraction of the cost of installing a PTSN connected telephone system, or a PBX.
It can integrate with existing systems
Whilst many businesses have fully migrated to VoIP, or perhaps VoIP was there first ever telephony system, there are still businesses that have invested a lot in PSTN-based infrastructure. Luckily, they can also benefit from, and save money with Internet telephony. Speak to your Microsoft 365 Consultant or IT Support Partner to see what the options available to you are. An internet telephone system can be integrated with a business’ PSTN-based phone system through what is known as a SIP trunk.
It works almost anywhere
Of course, as we know from the revelations of mobile phone technology, PSTN telephones have a major flaw, which is that each telephone is fixed to a single location. This is in part why many businesses are abandoning traditional telephones in favour of Internet telephones.
There are a range of VoIP providers, but one of the best for businesses is Microsoft 365 Business Voice. The great thing about Business Voice is that the entirety of the infrastructure for it is based in the Cloud, and does not require end-users to perform any kind of installation. In fact, because Business Voice telephony is built into Microsoft Teams, their unified communication platform, it means that any device that has Microsoft Teams installed on it can be used as an Internet telephone – whether it’s your phone, your tablet, or even your desktop.
This means that no matter where you are, so long as you have an internet connection, you will have access to Internet telephony.
