Business and Home VoIP Applications

VoIP is a great money saver, whether youÕre a commercial or a private user. Although the economics are the best for businesses placing a high volume of inter-branch telephone communications, there are also substantial savings and advantages for people who make -- or would like to make -- a lot of expensive long-distance calls.

Business Applications
Businesses, especially those with national and international branch offices, can realize impressive savings on their telephone bills by using VoIP. All calls within the organization are treated as local calls, even when they originate from another country. Local phone numbers can be established in places all over the world. This allows customers and associates to call the company from anywhere for the cost of a local call.

Business-class voicemail and call routing are a part of most corporate VoIP packages. When calling into an organization, you can route your calls by dialing an extension number or indicating the person's name or the department you want. All unanswered calls are automatically transferred to voicemail.

Many VoIP functions can be automated and pre-programmed. For instance, certain individuals may have restricted access to departments within the organization, or specific voice messages are played at precise times of the day.

VoIP also has valuable business features that support easier and more effective interoffice communications. Conference calls can be set up so lots of people from various places can be involved. Participants can be in the same building or across the world. Even people outside the office network can be included. Individuals can be invited to a conference call by e-mail. The conference administrator can even drop parties from the conference at any point.

Home Applications
Individuals can also benefit from VoIP from home. In addition to the local and long-distance call savings, there are all the extra features that are automatically included in basic VoIP service. For example, conventional phone companies charge extra for call display, call forwarding, call return, and so forth. VoIP service providers, however, include them in the basic packages they offer.

People who travel a lot can take their VoIP phone with them and plug into any broadband connection anywhere in the world. No matter where you are in the world, you can call home for the price of a local call. People can also reach you from anywhere by dialing your local VoIP phone number. The call is routed through the Internet to your current location, whether itÕs Delhi, Geneva or the Caribbean.

VoIP also has special features that traditional phone service canÕt provide. One such feature is the ability to have many different phone numbers in different locations all routed to your home phone. This permits people to call you at local rates even when theyÕre thousands of miles away on foreign ground. It also allows you to establish separate lines for all of your family. You can even give all your teenagers their own telephone numbers.

The bottom line is, calls from a VoIP phone to PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network), are a lot cheaper than what youÕre currently paying with a regular phone company. Even better, when you call other VoIP subscribers, the calls are totally free.  So, as more and more of your friends and family subscribe to VoIP, the cheaper everyone's phone bill will get.