Business phone systems can be minimal or they can be quite expansive, and in, in the past, businesses would have to compromise and get less of a phone system than they would like if they don’t have much money. Sometimes, getting a phone system with certain features would mean choosing a much larger system than they needed. If the money wasn’t there for this purchase, there wasn’t much a business could do. However, with the advent of Voice over IP, businesses can have the exact phone system they need without all of the expensive equipment.

How VoIP Works

VoIP, as it is generally called, is a protocol that transfers sound into digital code, which is then effortlessly transmitted over an Internet connection. In essence, rather than using a phone line to transfer voice communications, an Internet connection is used with the help of VoIP software applications.

What Has Been Holding it Back

In the past, the main issues that kept VoIP from becoming more widely used was slow Internet speeds and expensive VoIP phones. In order to have a VoIP system, special VoIP phones had to be purchased. Because voice communications had to be transferred into digital, the phones often performed this task. That data was then sent on through a computer and out through an Internet connection.

Overcoming the Hurdles

Thankfully, Internet speeds have improved greatly and are plenty fast enough to handle whatever VoIP phone systems a business uses, big or small. In addition, while VoIP specific phones are still available, standard phones may only need a small adapter in order to transfer analog voice data to digital data without the need for VoIP specific phone equipment.

Because VoIP is managed by software, these phone systems can give a business the features that they would have had to paid big money for in the past. In addition, your business won’t have to pay for a ton for services you don’t need in order to get the features that you do need thanks to VoIP’s scalablity. From performance, ease of use, and cost, VoIP phones systems make a lot of sense. Whether you’re using it for a home phone or for business communications, VoIP is something you should seriously think about.