Business VOIP
Business VOIP carries your phone calls as data over a broadband connection instead of traditional analog lines. By converging voice and data onto one connection, VOIP enables hosted PBX, SIP trunking, and a richer feature set at a lower cost than legacy phone service. It is the modern foundation for business telephone systems.
How business VOIP works
VOIP digitizes each phone call and sends it as packets over your broadband connection rather than over dedicated copper voice lines. Calls can terminate to a cloud hosted PBX or connect your on-site PBX to the carrier through SIP trunking. Because voice and data share one connection, VOIP cuts cost and adds features that analog lines cannot match.
Typical business VOIP pricing
When it fits
✓ Great fit
Business VOIP is a great fit for offices that want to drop legacy phone bills, add features like auto attendant and voicemail-to-email, and run voice and data over a single broadband connection. It suits multi-site organizations and remote teams that benefit from a hosted PBX. Companies modernizing from analog lines or an aging PBX gain the most from VOIP.
● Consider instead
Consider keeping or adding a dedicated voice circuit when call quality cannot tolerate any congestion on a shared broadband connection. VOIP voice quality depends on adequate bandwidth and quality-of-service handling, so a poor underlying connection will hurt calls. Where a guaranteed circuit is required, SIP trunking over dedicated access or a voice T1 may be the better fit.
How it compares
SIP trunking is the mechanism that connects a PBX to the VOIP network; hosted VOIP instead moves the whole PBX into the cloud.
A PRI delivers 23 dedicated voice channels over a T1; VOIP carries unlimited concurrent calls over broadband, limited only by bandwidth.
A voice T1 is a dedicated circuit with guaranteed quality; VOIP rides shared broadband for far lower cost and more features.
What to look for
- ✓Bandwidth and QoS. Voice quality depends on enough upstream bandwidth and quality-of-service prioritization on your connection.
- ✓Hosted vs. on-premise. Choose a cloud hosted PBX for simplicity, or SIP trunking to keep your existing PBX hardware.
- ✓E911 and number porting. Confirm the VOIP provider handles emergency calling and porting your existing phone numbers.
- ✓Power and failover. Plan for call rerouting if the broadband connection or power goes down, since VOIP depends on both.
Common questions
What is business VOIP?
Business VOIP is phone service that carries calls as data over a broadband connection instead of analog phone lines, enabling hosted PBX, SIP trunking, and converged voice and data.
How does VOIP lower phone costs?
VOIP runs voice over your existing broadband connection rather than separate copper voice lines, eliminating those line charges and adding features at a lower monthly cost.
What is the difference between hosted VOIP and SIP trunking?
Hosted VOIP puts the entire PBX in the cloud and bills per seat, while SIP trunking connects your existing on-site PBX to the VOIP network and bills per channel.
Is VOIP call quality good enough for business?
Yes, provided the broadband connection has enough bandwidth and quality-of-service handling; VOIP voice quality degrades only when the underlying connection is congested or under-provisioned.
Can VOIP use my existing phone numbers?
Yes. Business VOIP providers port your existing numbers, so you keep them when you converge voice onto your broadband connection.
Does VOIP work during a power or internet outage?
Because VOIP depends on broadband and power, calls need failover such as rerouting to mobile or a backup connection if either goes down.
What does VOIP need to run well?
VOIP needs a reliable broadband connection with sufficient upload bandwidth and quality-of-service prioritization to keep voice traffic ahead of data.
More on Business VOIP
Business VOIP, short for voice over IP, replaces traditional analog phone lines by carrying every call as data over your broadband connection. Instead of paying for separate copper voice lines, a business converges voice and data onto one connection, which lowers cost and unlocks features that legacy telephony cannot offer. VOIP can take the form of a cloud hosted PBX, where the phone system lives in the carrier's data center, or SIP trunking, which connects an existing on-site PBX to the VOIP network. Either way, calls travel as IP packets, so capacity scales with bandwidth rather than with the number of physical lines. This converged approach is why VOIP has become the default choice for new business phone systems.
Beyond cost savings, business VOIP brings auto attendants, voicemail-to-email, find-me-follow-me, and unified communications that tie phones to chat and video. Because voice rides the same broadband connection as data, call quality depends on having enough bandwidth and proper quality-of-service handling. Multi-site and remote-friendly organizations gain the most, since a hosted PBX presents one phone system across every location. For companies retiring analog lines or an aging PBX, VOIP is the natural modernization path.
Types of serviceOptions and variants
What businesses use it for
- ✓Cloud phone system. A hosted PBX delivers a full business phone system over broadband with no on-site hardware.
- ✓PBX modernization. SIP trunking connects an existing PBX to the VOIP network and retires costly analog or PRI trunks.
- ✓Multi-site voice. One VOIP system presents a single hosted PBX and dial plan across every office location.
- ✓Remote and hybrid teams. Remote staff place and receive calls on the business phone system over any broadband connection.
- ✓Unified communications. VOIP ties voice to chat, presence, and video on the same converged connection.
Business VOIP details
Internet Voice, also known as Voice Over Internet Protocol or VoIP, is a technology that allows you to make telephone calls using a broadband Internet connection instead of using a normal analog telephone phone line. Many Business VOIP services today allow you to call anyone who has a telephone number - including local, long distance, mobile, and sometimes even international numbers. Some Business VOIP services work only through your computer or special Business VOIP phone, but many voice over internet services allow you to use a traditional analog telephone through a special adaptor. Voice Over Internet Protocol technology has matured rapidly allowing Business VOIP to offer many potential benefits, including reduced costs, more robust features, and converged networks. Many companies experience a cost savings due to using a single internet connection to carry voice and data simultaneously. This is especially true when users have existing under-utilized network capacity that can can be utilized for Business VOIP without any additional costs.