What is Voice over IP (VOIP)?

Voice Over IP simply refers to a digital telephone line and this can be either software or hardware based. It has become the preferred solution of the telecommunication industry for voice delivery, with most customers not realising they are using it, the predominant application being with mobile phones (an example of a hardware-based VoIP service).

In addition to hardware-based VoIP solutions there is a huge range of software-based VoIP services, popular examples being WhatsApp and Skype, with more advanced software-based products being available that allow for customisations that offer enhanced functionality.

It is a goal of the telecommunication companies to switch off all their analogue infrastructure, which will move all our home lines onto digital telephone systems. VoIP telephone handsets are for the most part identical to analogue handsets but have additional settings to both customise and interact with them. Many VoIP handsets also allow you to use any internet connection which permit you to take your telephone number anywhere.

Businesses have made use of VoIP throughout the COVID-19 pandemic to allow staff to work from home whilst maintaining company communications seamlessly. Customers can call the regular business telephone numbers accessing the usual switch board and work colleagues can call one another on their usual extensions. In fact, it is hard to imagine how businesses would have been able to cope with COVID restrictions without VoIP enabling this continuity.

Another benefit of VoIP is the ability to request geographically located telephone numbers allowing users to make telephone calls at local rates for other countries. For example, a user in the UK may have family in America and so they request a US telephone number appropriate to a particular state, this allows their family that live there to call them at local rates rather than paying international tariffs.

Our 4G and satellite internet connections are fully compatible with VoIP and so whether your switching from your BT landline or working from home we can keep you connected.