The landline might have served you well in the past, but it’s no longer enough to keep your operations running smoothly in today’s fast-paced business environment. Voice over internet protocol (VoIP) doesn’t just improve upon landline telephony — it greatly reduces costs while enabling companies to scale more quickly.
Despite the unprecedented rise of VoIP technology, implementation excellence lags behind. Issues plaguing VoIP include poor audio quality, hackers listening in on your communications, and connections that break often or at the worst moment.
With the right approach, VoIP brings enormous business benefits. But to truly take advantage of them all, there are some important things to think about:
#1. Use a dedicated or fibre internet connection
Just like any other online activity, VoIP phone calls consume bandwidth, which, in many implementations, is shared with every other system. If these consume too much bandwidth, your phone calls will suffer increased latency and reduced voice quality. Video communications are even more susceptible to such problems since they require a lot more bandwidth.
To ensure your VoIP service always has the bandwidth it needs, consider using a dedicated internet connection or upgrade to a fibre line for increased reliability.
#2. Implement quality-of-service controls
Many businesses use one internet connection for everything. However, no matter how fast or reliable your connection is, most applications will, by default, consume as much available bandwidth as they can. Since call quality depends on factors such as jitter, packet loss, and echo, you need a way to prioritize bandwidth and ensure consistently high performance.
Enterprise-grade routers and switches that are designed with VoIP in mind should include quality of service (QoS) controls, which allow you to provide dedicated bandwidth to the system and manage overall network traffic more efficiently.
#3. Choose a SIP provider carefully
VoIP technology uses session initiation protocol (SIP). This makes it possible to inexpensively connect your incoming and outgoing calls between internet-connected devices and conventional phone lines. If, however, your SIP provider doesn’t offer direct connections to a carrier network, call quality and reliability may suffer.
Always choose a SIP provider that supports your existing private branch exchange (PBX) and provides a direct connection between the internet and any other networks it uses for delivering voice and video calls.
#4. Consider using a cloud-hosted PBX
Some businesses choose to set up a VoIP server in house, which typically works out to be a very costly endeavor. It also lacks scalability, since it might run out of capacity if it experiences a period of increased demand or onboard new employees. Furthermore, unexpected failures or cyberattacks can and do happen, which can quickly render the entire system inoperable and costly to repair.
Consider migrating your communications to the cloud with a hosted PBX solution that you can manage entirely online. Cloud VoIP providers typically have the redundancies in place to guarantee a near 100% uptime.
#5. Secure your VoIP setup
One of the most common concerns around VoIP technology is that it lacks the security of analogue telephone lines. Just like any other data sent across a network, audio and video calls can be intercepted by a man-in-the-middle attack. Another risk is having your system compromised by unauthorized access, leading to fees for calls you never made.
Fortunately, these challenges aren’t that difficult to solve. With end-to-end encryption, you can mitigate eavesdropping attacks, coupled with a SIP proxy, you can verify the identity of anyone using the service.
Landlines are expensive, inconvenient, and outdated. They simply don’t offer the functionality that modern businesses need to stay competitive. Quicktech offers VoIP solutions that dramatically cut costs and improve efficiency. Call us today to find out more.