Voip – Advantages And Disadvantages

The new technology of VoIP has caught on big time and many business have completely gone over to the other side. With complex call routing, and intelligence built in, Voiceover IP has definitely showed itself to be the future of telephony. However, there are still many wrinkles to be ironed out and in this article we take a look at both the advantages and disadvantages of VoIP networks.

Advantages of VoIP

There are three big advantages that VoIP enjoys over traditional PSTN systems. Cost, flexibility and scalability. The first one, cost, is the most obvious and is the biggest pull for individual customers these days. A VoIP call can be made at a fraction of the cost of a regular PSTN connection. When we look at overseas calls, it gets even better. The rates which VoIP allows providers to charge are almost negligible. A huge cost saving for those who need to talk to business partners or loved ones overseas for long periods of time.

The second advantage – flexibility – refers to the ability of businesses and providers to integrate a VoIP system into any number of applications to any extent depending on the skill of the programmer. Therefore it can be tied into sales and CRM data as well accounting systems. This can vary from place to place depending on the needs. Additionally, complicated rules can easily be created regarding call routing, business hours, conferencing and any other use that VoIP is put to.

Finally, VoIP inherits the scalability of the Internet. Adding a new user is in many cases as simple as plugging in the phone and creating an account. Just like an email box. And the costs don’t go up the way they do with PSTN systems.

Disadvantages of VoIP

Many VoIP networks are still not interoperable. Meaning that Skype users for example have to utilize the PSTN network in order to communicate with another VoIP system such as SIP. This increases the cost of calls and forgoes benefits such as HD voice which rely on high end codecs sent entirely over IP.

VoIP call quality has been improving dramatically and in many cases is superior to PSTN, but there is still the occasional glitch caused by the fact that the Internet is basically stateless.

Finally, the standards used by VoIP are still being standardized. In a few years more, it should be pretty much settled what everyone is going to use. But until that time, we have to go with what most people work with – SIP – and hope that others catch up soon.

An article from Virtual Office