What you should look for in a VoIP provider?

Once you decide to break your company free from a traditional phone system, one of things that make adopting IP Telephony attractive is the ability to use a VoIP provider to save on phone call costs.

But, in the last few years, an overwhelming choice of VoIP providers have emerged following the booming in the IP PBX market and the staggering growth of VoIP. So, how do you know which one to choose? A useful piece of advice is to base your selection of VoIP provider expressly on your business’ needs.

With this in mind, here are five useful tips that can help you decide which VoIP provider’s services to engage:

1. Check the VoIP provider’s international call rates based on your real needs.

While VoIP providers offer cheaper rates than most conventional telephone companies (PSTN), choosing the most adequate Voice over IP service for your specific needs and calling patterns is very important. Rates vary among VoIP providers according to call destinations. Make sure you do not take into consideration only their ‘overall ranking’ as a cheap or expensive VoIP provider, but study their individual rates for the countries you usually call to. For example, if you have business partners only in Sweden, France and Italy, you should not be interested if their call rates to the Far East are the cheapest in the market. Focus on your real needs.

2.  Make sure the quality of phone calls meets your company’s standards.

Many VoIP providers have very cheap rates on offer but deliver very bad voice quality. If you have a business that relies on customer service over the phone, then you might want to make sure you have optimal voice quality even if you need to pay a bit extra. If you only use phone calls for staff to staff communication, then you might be willing to compromise voice quality to increase savings.

3. Consider SIP trunking as an option.

SIP trunking is a feature offered by some VoIP providers. It allows businesses to conveniently converge local, long distance and broadband internet onto a single pipe. A SIP trunk is the modern day equivalent of a T1 trunk. Where in the past a business would acquire a T1 trunk from a telecommunications provider and connect it to their proprietary PBX, today companies can buy a SIP trunk from a VoIP provider to be connected to an IP PBX.

4.  Don’t compromise on reliability.

There are new VoIP providers emerging pretty much every week all over the world. Most of these new VoIP providers market themselves with promises of being the cheapest, most reliable and offering the best voice quality. But, the same way that these VoIP providers appear, they disappear, too. Conduct some research in your market to find out which VoIP providers are established and have a good reputation. The last thing you want for your business is to end up without the ability to make or receive phone calls from one minute to the next.

5.  Make sure you use an IP PBX that works well with VoIP providers.

The most important element in IP telephony will be your IP PBX software. Make sure you choose one that is easy to install, configure and manage, offers you enterprise-level features, and works well with popular VoIP gateways and VoIP providers.

That’s all. Now you will be able choose the perfect VoIP services for your business or home.

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About Anne Kwong