Hands on: The Voice over IP question

For home PC users phoning friends and relatives, the decision to invest in Voice over IP (VoIP) is pretty much a no-brainer.

Simply download Skype or subscribe to one of the many surf-and-talk packages on offer and you could make big savings.

But for business users it is not so straightforward, as there are many different ways to deploy VoIP technology. The telephone system is a key business tool and any changes need to be considered carefully.

Get it right and you could save money, get it wrong and you could lose out – big time.

So, what does VoIP offer the small business? What are the options, and are there any limitations?

More than just a phone?
Despite what some vendors might say, you won’t lose out if you don’t deploy VoIP. It certainly has its advantages and can help you save money, but there is little VoIP can offer that can’t be done using a conventional telephone system.

Most IP solutions try hard to match what those conventional systems provide, in terms of call management and voicemail, for example – not the other way around.

Equally, it is important to understand that IP technology will not improve call quality – far from it.

Quality can be a major issue with VoIP calls which, unlike a dedicated lines between caller and receiver, are broken down into packets that are then transmitted, along with data, over a shared network.

Worse still, where the Internet is used for long-distance connections, as well as intervening gateways to link VoIP users to traditional PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network), subscribers packets are easily delayed or lost – often degrading what you hear.

This is not a problem when calling relatives abroad, perhaps, but can become a real issue if you use the phone as a business tool. Fortunately, there are ways around this.

For example, by making sure there is enough bandwidth for both types of tra ffic, and through the use of Quality of Service (QoS) technologies to effectively prioritise VoIP.

However, the best you can hope for from taking these measures, is call quality on a par with that of a traditional analogue or digital phone.

So if call quality is not improved, what benefits are there for business users? The answer, of course, is cheaper phone bills, followed (possibly) by an easier-to-manage telephone system and integrated voice and data.