Posts Tagged ‘VOIP’
Before opting to VoIP online, you should know about hardware based VoIP phone. This service is available in many varieties, but two of the most important. Se –
1. IP Phone
2. ATA (Analogue Telephone Adapter)
IP Phone
An IP phone works more or less like your standard telephone. This phone will connect to your home network via an Ethernet cable. You can use the IP phone, even if you shut down the computer, working independently of your PC.
ATA (Analogue Telephone Adapter)
If you want to go to VoIP, this is the most popular for you. You can use your present phone instrument VoIP line connecting the ATA directly into the RJ-12 phone cable to the ATA. Now you can connect the ATA using an Ethernet port to your home network. Currently, there are numerous features available on the ATA.
Common features of ATA –
1. The useful PSTN gateway function that allows your standard phone line to be connected to the ATA which allows calls over VoIP or PSTN.
2. The ability to have more than one phone connected to the ATA.
3. ATA is independent of the computer. So you can send and receive calls in case your PC is off.
Each of the hardware-based phones are VoIP with different characteristics, which depends exclusively on the discretion of manufacturers. Today, a single unit that contains VoIP ATA / QoS / modem and broadband wireless router available in the market. So you can buy an instrument with all these facilities to make cheap calls to friends and neighbors online through VOIP. ALL THE BEST!!!
The technology of predictive dialers is used very commonly by the telemarketing sector so that they can enhance their outgoing calls efficiency. i.e. VOiP Online. Earlier, this was not the case and there was a lot of wastage of time on waiting to make a call and then also on waiting to answer the call. At times, the calls were even not answered and were delivered the unavailable message. Therefore there was a sheer wastage of the resources. But with this technology, only the live calls were answered while the voice calls were disconnected.
All this was done because this technology makes use of a database to dial the contacts. If the availability of the agent is 50, then around 100 calls are made. If it meets ant unanswered, busy calls then it immediately disconnects and goes on with the next call. The calls are transferred to actual persons that are the agent of the call center. Therefore it keeps the agents engaged with the customers and moreover there is no wastage of time in attending the voice calls.
If due to some reason the customer is not available at the moment, and the machine encounters a silence, then the call is automatically disconnected after a brief time. This is actually done to save the call but at times irritates the customer. Therefore in the countries like US and UK there are strict rules and regulations that are followed so as to when to disconnect the call. If the company is engaged in dropping more than 3% of the calls then they are heavily fined.
Predictive dialers are available in both hardware and software bases. Among these two the hardware based are more advanced and have more features. They can switch the calls at a faster speed, possess a better handling of the calls and therefore are even more expensive. This system has another advantage that it is an automated system. Whenever the call center agent is about to make a call, the contact details are displayed before him for a small period of time and then, this enables him to take the calls more personal and improve the communication.
The hosted dialers are the cheaper ones. The company which wants to use this setup has to have a connection to a system and a telephone line every agent. Therefore the costs are reduced which are otherwise used in the initial set up. But as these are dependent on the VOIP, the result may not be up to the mark.
MX Digital, is one of the top supplier and provides with automated dialing, and also exact dialling equipments. They also have an online service which has a healthy group of contact center systems such as the predictive, progressive dialer, email management etc.
As these hardware and software based predictive dialer solutions have emerged, the time and the resources of the call centers are effectively utilized and therefore the overall productivity is also increased. Thus Voip online is being used efficiently…
Auto dialer justifies its name, and as suggested by the name, it dials calls automatically. It can easily dial about thousand of calls automatically and that too at a very food frequency. It first dials the calls and then can even leave voice messages to the recipients who are available and answer the calls. It is a machine capable of multi tasking and at a time do the work of many tele-callers. These workers then can utilize this time that they are able to save and use it in many other important works. It also increases the efficiency of the workers. It saves the manual work that generally a worker spends on dialing and does not even come up with many fruitful results. These days, in such a competitive market, every second holds a lot of value, each second counts and therefore this machine provides an upper edge. Manually it is impossible to dial a thousand calls at a time, and this machine can do it easily. This gives a boost to the productivity of business.
Generally whenever any customer, contacts a BPO, they expect a very quick solution to their problems, irrelevant of the fact if that problem can be solved in the shortest time or no. Many times, it happens that it is not possible to provide a quick solution to his problems. However, this automatic dialer, solves these problems and can do all the functions that an operator performs, without any help from them and even can transfer messages. All these things finally contribute to the enhancement of business and increase in the efficiency.
By now, most of us have heard about VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) and the possibility of making cheap if not free calls. Though some of us already know how this actually works, the general public has no idea on how to take advantage of VoIP systems. Basically, VoIP is done by implying internet technology to carry our voice across great distances. Here are the three most common implementations of VoIP:
PC to PC (Peer to Peer)
It might not seem to be very apparent to the common person but VoIP use is very prevalent via PC to PC connections. Almost all messenger applications like Skype, AIM, and Yahoo have their own version of a VoIP system to let their users talk to each other. Even if you do not prefer to be restricted to messenger applications, you can also find a lot of software whose sole function is VoIP. These are called “softphones”, a merger between software and phones. You can use softphones independent of messenger applications. As long as you have configured it right and your internet connection is reliable, you’re free to make phone calls to anyone who also uses VoIP. Calling to standard landlines though is a little bit complicated. You would need to subscribe to a company who switches your call to the standard phone line. Though these companies would charge you, it is quite minimal compared to the exorbitant prices that are charged to you whenever you call long distance.
ATA
The Second possible option is by using you regular telephone even if it is not digital. VoIP systems carry voice in a digital format since the internet is digital. This is achieved by attaching an ATA (Analog Telephone Adapter) between your traditional phone and your computer or your router. This is already a hardware solution so understandably these kinds of hardware come in VoIP packages that some companies provide. This usually means that you are already tied up to their service just like with traditional phone systems. So you better be careful in choosing the company you subscribe to since you might get slapped with hefty charges if you unsubscribe early. The general advantage of the hardware solution is the fact that it’s transparent. Meaning you don’t have to bother with anything else once you’ve got it working. You can use it just like you would use your ordinary telephone line.
IP Phone
The last option is via an IP phone. This is basically the equivalent of an ATA with a phone attached to it already. Though there seems to be no difference compared to just using an ATA, an IP phone captures voice signals in digital form already so there is no need for hardware that converts analog signals to digital signals. It might appear neater and sleeker compared to an ATA and regular phone combo but the disadvantage is that you are basically stuck with that phone since it’s a compact whole. IP phones have a connector that is the same as a LAN cable. This plugs directly to your router for transparent connections.
In the rapidly changing world that we live in today, we are always on the lookout for whatever does what we require of it but for a lesser price. Especially while the world is in financial crisis, everybody is trying to find ways to cut costs and reduce the expenses so that we can make ends meet. One such cost cutting method is VoIP technology. This is a technology that people who needs to communicate in a constant basis would really enjoy having.
VoIP or Voice over Internet Protocol is a method of making phone calls but not on your standard telephones but over the internet. There are no charges when doing so except if you include your monthly internet bill. But given that your internet bill is fixed every month, the cost of calling using VoIP is really very cheap compared to regular landlines especially if the person you are calling is in another country.
Traditionally, VoIP calls are only made PC to PC. In order to use VoIP, the both of you must have high speed internet access. Dial-up internet isn’t really advisable since the very slow speed of dial-up means very low quality that is often delayed. You would also need a speaker and a microphone, though a headset with an attached headset is much more comfortable.
Later on, as VoIP started to gain popularity and as more people started using it more, some companies developed devices that looked like phones but are plugged into your computer so that making phone calls feels a little bit more familiar to the people who are a little bit more hesitant or awkward with the technology. These phones later evolved into IP phones that just connect directly to your router and are fully configured so that you don’t have to bother setting it up or anything.
The progress of VoIP technology has been noticed not only by the general public, but also by large corporations who spends a little fortune every year on communication costs. There are already companies who are slowly deploying IP Phones to test if they can benefit from it. There are even some companies who have started shifting their standard PBX systems to IP based ones so that their calls can be routed via the internet reducing their maintenance phone bill charges when calling employees that are working at home or in the field. The use of IP phones have also reduced their charges on intra-office communication since the all their communication is routed via the internet and not the local telephone companies where toll charges could really rack up.
VoIP technology seems to be the ascendant of our legacy phone systems. In no time at all, a great majority of telephone users would have already transferred to internet telephony slowly leaving the standard telephone lines for the cheaper and more efficient VoIP. It is no longer a question of If, but just a matter of when. As VoIP becomes more popular, more providers would be competing to provide better service thereby slowly perfecting the technology of internet telephony.
VoIP or Voice over Internet Protocol is a telephony system that takes advantage of broadband internet access to send and receive voice signals to facilitate a phone call. It converts analog signals into digital form before using the internet to send the packets to the other party. In order for the calls to be as identical as possible to regular phone calls, the internet connection must be fast enough to deliver the packets without any noticeable delay.
Although you might think that this might not provide any sort of advantage because you are just using the same line and hardware to do it. The advantages of VoIP are very prevalent that most large companies have already installed their own VoIP systems to complement their own phones and have already manage to cut down their telephone bills drastically. Even in homes where long distance calls are often made, they managed to successfully deploy
VoIP does this by cutting down on bandwidth usage. Voice calls occupy a fixed bandwidth whenever a call is connected regardless if there is sound being transmitted or not. VoIP compresses the analog input it receives and removes areas that have nothing but background noise. This process is so efficient that a single line could handle 5 to 10 times more calls in progress without much degradation in signal quality.
This improvement is so significant that even telephone companies have even deployed their own VoIP systems to handle their long distance calls between stations. Thereby raising their capacities by so much more and allowing them to slightly reduce their pricing and gain a lot more in profits at the same time. You might not know it but you might have been using VoIP technology without knowing it.
Despite all the advantages, VoIP does still have its drawbacks since the technology is very new and it has not been standardized that well just yet. Common problems of VoIP are usually related to your own internet connection. There are still no standard or protocol that prioritizes VoIP traffic over other ones thus making VoIP compete with all other services that are sharing the bandwidth. The most common bandwidth consuming activities are downloading and watching online videos. Even weather conditions can affect your internet connection at the provider level. Then there’s good old congestion, when too many people are using the internet at the same time in your area.
If we just look at the advantages and disadvantages of VoIP systems, we can surely say that VoIP is set to continue beyond the foreseeable future. Whatever kinks may exist in the system, as long as the wide savings margin still exist, there would still be plenty of people willing to develop and enhance the system to give better service to anyone who wants to cut costs. If you would like to know how important VoIP is, you just need to consider that VoIP is probably the technology that supersedes our old and outdated telephone systems. That’s how important VoIP is.
Internet telephony has become more and more used in these past few years. There are few web navigators who are not familiar with VoIP (the abbreviation for Voice over Internet Protocol).
Those who resort to an Internet telephony service provider are both household users and companies. The need that VoIP satisfies for them is to be able to make cheap long-distance calls. Since adopting a VoIP solution can significantly reduce the budget for communication for both individual and corporate users, more and more people choose it. Due to increasing popularity, it has started to replace regular telephony. The applications offered by any Internet telephony service provider also allow PC-to-phone calls, file transfers and conferencing.
There are even fewer people who show reluctance to adopting VoIP solutions because the applications available are extremely easy to set up and use. An Internet telephony service provider will advise those wishing to replace their current landlines with softphones to acquire a high-speed Internet connection that ensures phone call quality.
Broadband Internet is a requirement for succesful VoIP technology use because a dial-up connection is too slow to transmit all data and greatly diminishes the quality of calls. The softphone applications offered by an Internet telephony service provider generally have a user-friendly interface, similar to that of regular phones and learning how to use them is mainly a matter of intuition.
There are even more similarities between applications used with the VoIP technology and regular phones.
Generally, an Internet telephony service provider will include in their softphone applications features like call forwarding, the possibility to leave voice messages or call waiting, all integrated in an extremely accessible interface that will look very familiar to everyone. This is why many find the transition from regular phones to VoIP very easy and have no trouble at all adjusting to their new calling center. The offer of an Internet telephony service provider often includes emergency calls coverage, though certain companies charge a monthly sum to provide this feature.
Apart from a broadband Internet connection, a softphone based on the VoIP technology also requires electricity to work, which means that in case there is a power failure your phone will be down too. However, no Internet telephony service provider sees this as a disadvantage since most telephone devices nowadays are already dependent on electricity. A major advantage of VoIP is that the people you are calling from your softphone do not need to have broadband phones themselves. The offer of an Internet telephony service provider usually includes the possibility to make PC to regular phone calls. With certain providers, you can buy credit and make prepaid phone calls, which are both affordable and of high quality.
Those who subscribe to VoIP providers will discover that this service is even more accessible than they may have imagined. The monthly fee of an Internet telephony service provider is generally fairly low, especially when it comes to long-distance calls, which can get quite expensive for those using regular telephony services. With VoIP, long distance is the same as two blocks away, because you are using the Internet, and long-distance calls are comparably cheaper. Those who choose broadband telephony will also discover there are no additional taxes or fees and every cent on their Internet telephony bill is accounted for.
Understanding how VoIP actually works is very simple and any Internet telephony service provider will be happy to explain the basics to those interested. The main idea is that, through VoIP technology, the human voice is converted from an analog signal to digital data packages, which can be handled in many ways. This is why it is possible to have features like caller ID recognition, call waiting, conferencing or voice messaging. The difference from regular telephony services is that your broadband telephony provider will not charge you extra, but usually offer you these features for free, unlike most landline telephony providers.
The various advantages of the VOIP technology have already persuaded a lot of people to replace their regular phone line with a broadband phone by resorting to an Internet telephony service provider. With the spread of high-speed Internet connections, suitable services are no longer a problem and this is why the number of those who choose Internet telephony over regular landlines has increased at an almost vertiginous rate. Experts anticipate that the number of people using broadband phones will continue to go up, as an indirect consequence of globalization and of the need for more cost-effective means of communication.
