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Sunday, March 2, 2008

VoIP Providers: Look-out for the best

VoIP Providers: Look-out for the best

by Kristen Kiya


The latest internet telephony services are delivering end-to-end media-rich collaborative applications for voice, video, data and images over the internet. These services offer unified communication and they are gaining popularity among various business houses of different sizes. The merit of IP services is that it provides a competitive edge with efficient internal operations that increases productivity of calls and significantly lowers down the long distance and international call charges for users.

The advanced VoIP services enable the users to connect with others anytime and any where across the globe. As a matter of fact, internet telephony services are based on the packet switching technique, wherein calls are routed over internet. This allows users to experience telecommunication much the same way e-mail travels over the Internet.

The VoIP services allow users to cut-down their monthly telecommunication costs and add a wide array of features to their calling plans such as call forwarding, call waiting, voice mailing and many more. As a matter of fact, this unified communication has a potential to simplify and improve the business communication quite significantly. Moreover, the Voice over IP service also augments business agility quite significantly.

The users can avail VoIP services using their fixed line as well as mobile phones. Considering this fact, VoIP technology is gaining popularity over the pre-existing PSTN services. With increasing popularity and benefits attached to it, these services have opened brand new opportunities for users to venture into VoIP telephony services. This, in turn, has resulted in a new platform for people to enter and reap more profits.

With a boom in the VoIP market, demand for IP call termination services is on the peak. The VoIP providers are offering a whole range of value-added services to cater to the evolving needs and requirements of business users, small and medium sized businesses as well as residential users.

The providers offer different services such as wholesale carrier service, reseller programs, managed partitioning services and business solutions to their respective clients or users that could be either wholesalers, resellers or end-users. Furthermore, wholesalers and resellers sell some portion of VoIP switch or call termination services to end-users or real-users.

While availing the VoIP services, one should concentrate on selecting the one of the best VoIP phone service providers. The users must keep a check on two prime considerations i.e. quality of service provided and cost efficiency. Some of the QoS parameters include availability of customer support, flexibility, compatibility, reliability and scalability.

1. Availability of technical support: To assist the real-users with technical and infrastructural support, wholesalers or resellers must look-in for a VoIP phone service provider that offers technical support round the clock.
2. Flexibility: The users must select the provider that offers VoIP solutions in the most flexible manner. For instance, this feature allows users to add or extend the telephone lines without compromising on other valuable options such as call forwarding, 3-way calling and call waiting.
3. Reliability: As a matter of fact, VoIP market is flooded with providers that offer user-friendly interfaces, so users or wholesalers must concentrate on this factor also.

Last but not the least; cost efficiency plays a vital role in the entire selection process. As a matter of fact, the VoIP market is flooded with providers, so extensive research should be carried out for zeroing in on any one. Therefore, while selecting the VoIP provider, users must opt for the provider that offers lowest call tariffs accompanied with maximum features.

To conclude it can be said that the VoIP solutions are getting popular among business houses of any size. And VoIP providers are serving them well by offering different services - albeit - via wholesalers and resellers.

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