Phones 101: So what exactly is VoIP Anyway??

Well, as it turns out, today’s our lucky day! We’re going to get to the bottom of not only what VoIP actually is – but what it means for you and your business. When I first attempted to research this, I found the following answer on the Allworx website:

 “The term “VoIP” is officially an acronym for Voice over Internet Protocol, but is also used to loosely refer to any application where packet-based data networks are used to packet switch telephone calls in real-time. This type of telephony contrasts to traditional hard-wired analog telephony that is circuit switched known as TDM (Time Division Multiplexing).”

What?... As a Marketing Director (not a phone techie or IT person), I struggle to comprehend what exactly that means to me. How about you?

In the most basic sense, “VoIP services convert your voice into a digital signal that travels over the Internet” – pretty cool eh?

So, how can this new technology benefit you? If you own a small business, an IP phone system allows you to merge your entire communications network into one unified system – placing your voice, data, wireless, and other business communication tools on the same network. Not only can VoIP be the first step in ensuring call security, it can also allow employees to easily work from home - or any other remote location with an Internet connection. This accessibility can come in extremely handy if you are working to grow your business or if we get another freak snow-storm in the Upstate!

Overall, by upgrading your telecommunications to a VoIP system, you can increase productivity and security while simultaneously reducing costs and employee frustration. A bonus – because many additional features come standard on IP phone systems, it can eliminate the headache, time and costs associated with routinely upgrading, or purchasing add-ons for, a traditional phone system.

Okay, back to how VoIP actually works. Here’s an analogy to get more “visual.”  VoIP takes audio signals and turns it into small packets of data. These packets of data are like multi-colored marbles running through a serious of chutes or pipes (kind of like the board game Mouse TrapJ). Using VoIP, these marbles (i.e. spoken words or phrases) are placed in a timed sequence, where they roll through the system of pipes, are split apart, mixed with other marble collections from all over the world, and at the end arrive in the exact order necessary to rebuild the original spoken sentence. The coolest part? Even with millions of marbles rolling through a complex system all over North America, in the end, they are all routed to the right place, in the right order, like they were never “broken up” in the first place. So, the 10 green “marbles” it takes me to tell my mom “I can’t wait to visit you in the summer,” arrive just as I’ve spoken them, lighting fast, regardless of the myriad paths they may have taken to arrive to their final destination – her telephone.  

This analogy makes sense to me, but if you’ve got a better one, I’d love to hear it!

I’ll be writing more of these with the goal of taking the mystery out of business telecommunications – if you’ve got suggestions or topics you’d like more information or clarity on, let me know!

 - Megan