If you have been shopping for a Business Phone systems, or if you just keep up with what is going on in the world of Telecommunications, you may have run across ‘Hosted Phone Service’. Hosted VoIP Phone Service is latest advancement in Telecommunications, it brings together features of a traditional phone system and combines them with the cost savings and flexibility of IP based solutions.
What is hosted phone service?
Hosted VoIP phone service is similar to traditional phone service. You get great call quality, caller-ID, voicemail, voicemail to email, call parking, and all the other features you’ve come to expect from your traditional system. From a user point of view there are two major differences.
1: Rather than using phone lines, hosted service is delivered via a T1, PRI, or DSL circuit. Phone lines are then delivered as SIP trunks or a Digital Circuit through the T-1. Because your phone lines and internet can both be delivered on the same shared circuit many internet providers are able to handle hosted services without any additional cost or equipment.
2: Instead of making one large expensive upfront purchase for equipment, installation, and service you rent your equipment on an ongoing basis. In addition system upgrades and repairs are taken care of at no cost to you. No more worrying about the high cost of replacement phones or programming changes.
How does hosted service compare to traditional?
| Traditional | Hosted |
| -Uses a phone line -Voicemail -Voicemail to email -Voicemail to fax -Must buy the phone system -Responsible for system maintenance and upgrades -Pay for the phone line and phone system separately -Must call provider to set up new voicemail boxes or extension changes |
-Uses your Internet connection (Cable, T1, etc) -Voicemail -Voicemail to email -Voicemail to fax -Lease phone system on a month to month basis -Upgrades and maintenance handled by hosted phone company -Bundled payment for service and system -Uses an Internet portal that puts you in control |
But I’ve heard hosted service provides poor call quality?
Many people have heard that hosted service means poor call quality, but this simply isn’t the case. In cases where users are experiencing low call quality (buzzing, snapping, garbled, or dropped calls) the fault usually lies with either an Internet connection that is too slow, or with networking equipment that does not support Quality of Service (QOS).
QOS is a feature built into some networking equipment (Such as switches or routers) that allows the device to prioritize bandwidth so that voice calls are given first priority over other traffic. The result is a call free of garbling, buzzing, or popping.
What kind of phones will I need?
To take advantage of a hosted VoIP phone service you will need a SIP phone. SIP phones are a type of VoIP (Voice over IP) telephone. There are two kinds of SIP phones, hardware and software. Hardware phones are physical phones that resemble traditional phones. Soft phones are software based phones that can run on a computer, smart-phone, or tablet.
Learn more about how hosted phone service can help you.