What is VoIP?
What is VoIP?
What is VoIP and What Can it Do for Your
Business?
VoIP and IP telephony are becoming
increasingly popular with large corporations and consumers alike. For many
people, Internet Protocol (IP) is more than just a way to transport data, it's
also a tool that simplifies and streamlines a wide range of business applications.
Telephony is the most obvious example. VoIP—or voice over IP—is also the
foundation for more advanced unified communications applications—including Web
and video conferencing—that can transform the way you do business.
What is VoIP: Useful
Terms
Understanding the
terms is a first step toward learning the potential of this technology:
·
VoIP refers to a way to carry phone calls over an
IP data network, whether on the Internet or your own internal network. A
primary attraction of VoIP is its ability to help reduce expenses because
telephone calls travel over the data network rather than the phone company's
network.
·
IP
telephony encompasses the full
suite of VoIP enabled services including the interconnection of phones for
communications; related services such as billing and dialing plans; and basic
features such as conferencing, transfer, forward, and hold. These services
might previously have been provided by a PBX.
·
IP
communications includes business
applications that enhance communications to enable features such as unified
messaging, integrated contact centers, and rich-media conferencing with voice,
data, and video.
Unified communications takes IP communications a step further by using
such technologies as Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) and presence along with
mobility solutions to unify and simply all forms of communications, independent
of location, time, or device. (Learn more about unified communications.)
What is VoIP: Service Quality
Public Internet phone calling uses the
Internet for connecting phone calls, especially for consumers. But most
businesses are using IP telephony across their own managed private networks
because it allows them to better handle security and service quality. Using
their own networks, companies have more control in ensuring that voice quality
is as good as, if not better than, the services they would have previously
experienced with their traditional phone system.
Explore the Cisco Unified Communications System
·
Why
VoIP? Learn how VoIP can
help your small business meet its biggest challenges.
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