Hosted VoIP Vs PSTN

Any person who has managed a business phone system knows the complexities involved in purchasing equipment, implementation, negotiating contracts with service providers etc. Things don’t become any simpler once the system is up and running either. Billing, accounting and managing the large volume of long-distance and local calls can become a nightmare, especially if the actual usage far exceeds the initial estimates.

Managers often have to track phone calls made by team members – whether local or long-distance – to make sure that monthly bills are not exorbitant. In addition, service providers often make confusing distinctions between long-distance calls made between certain locations, interoffice calls within the same country, and local calls to outside numbers. This means that employees may have to think twice before placing a call to a colleague in another country or state, hindering communication and collaboration.

Hosted VoIP Vs. PSTN

Practically every hosted VoIP service provider offers free interoffice calling irrespective of the number of offices or where they’re located. Although it sounds too good to be true (especially when compared to the high prices charged by phone carriers for the same privilege), free interoffice calling is an aspect of hosted VoIP that makes it very attractive for many organizations.

Strictly speaking, the feature itself is not exactly groundbreaking but the ease of use and implementation certainly is. Generally phone companies charge a fixed monthly or annual fee for an organization to enable unlimited interoffice calling. Even after the option is enabled, the free calls can only be made from certain assigned “work phones” and calls made from other devices will be charged.

Compare this to VoIP where the calls themselves and the features to enable it are both free. VoIP providers can achieve this because the calls are routed through the Internet or data networks and do not connect to the PSTN network at any point. Since all office locations are connected to the Internet (through Wi-Fi, LAN, WAN etc.), employees can make unlimited calls to their colleagues from any phone number – work or personal, a mobile or a desk phone or even a computer.

Advantages of Free Interoffice Calls

1. Reduces the time spent in tracking and billing: With VoIP, interoffice calls are free. There is no need for managers or employees to bother with tracking their monthly usage or to be concerned about potential bills. This frees up a lot of employee time that is normally wasted.
2. Increased productivity: Once employees are no longer obliged to think before contacting their colleagues, communication becomes faster. Teams can get together and collaborate irrespective of location and work gets done quicker once that barrier is removed.
3. Communicate anywhere, anytime: Interoffice calling is not restricted to a particular device or number. Employees can add all the devices/numbers they use regularly to the company directory so that callers don’t need to think about which number to call. This doesn’t just apply to voice calls – users can be reached via voice chat, text messages or video chat since all the channels are integrated into one system with VoIP.

Are you still paying heavy fees for calls between your office employees? What about when they’re travelling overseas? Do you worry about increasing expenses as your organization grows? Well then, this just might be the perfect time to try out a hosted VoIP calling system!