VoIP service provider: Right selection is must

VoIP service provider: Right selection is must

by Kristen Kiya

With the tremendous growth in large business houses, internet telephony services have motivated small and medium sized businesses to opt for same. These services allow business users to add more profits to their balance sheets. Apart from the cost savings, these services also enhance the organizational productivity to a large extent.

The IP telephony services support a unified communication suite, visual voice mail as well as access to mobile TV. As a matter of fact, communication via fiber optic simplifies and improves the business communication quite significantly. The business users can avail VoIP services using their landline, cable or mobile phones. This, in turn, has raised the demand for the VoIP services in the market. The latest telecommunication technology has opened up a new platform for users to venture in and reap more profits.

Broadly speaking, VoIP service providers, wholesalers and resellers are big players operating in this buoyant industry. To define the VoIP providers, it can be said that these are business entities that offer a whole range of IP services to their clients. The clients could be wholesalers, resellers as well as end users. Moreover, the demand for the VoIP services is increasing with each passing day, and there exists a lot of competition in the market for the same.

Today, in the VoIP market, there are millions of VoIP service providers that offer a wide range of value-added services to cater to the evolving needs and requirements of small and medium business users. Often it becomes difficult to choose the best service provider among them. To make this process of selection easy, business users must concentrate on the following factors:

1. Service and reliability: While selecting a VoIP provider, users must get the information about service providers from various sources. They could read reviews on the internet or talk to friends and other associates. Moreover, business users must always opt for providers that offer a money back guarantee in case of dissatisfaction with services.
2. Quality of services: Users should go for providers that offer broad bandwidths. As a matter of fact, broad bandwidth improves the quality of voice service and facilitates data transfer. Generally, 128 kbps is sufficient for making the most of a VoIP service.
3. Value-addition in features: The user must select the service provider that offers various value added services. The competition in the market is quite tough, so to survive in the market, smart service providers are offering bundled services such as caller ID, call transferring, call waiting, repeat dialing and 3-way calling.
4. Comparison of the call charges: While selecting the provider, one must compare the call charges of various VoIP service providers to select the best. The business users must opt for the provider that offers minimum tariffs with various value-added services.
5. Availability of local area codes: To enjoy longer distance as well as international calls at cheaper rates, business users must opt for the provider that offers local area codes in specific regions.

Apart from that, business users must consider other essential factors such as provision of alternative numbers, access to emergency services, and price for installation. To conclude, it can be said that the small and medium sized business houses have a lot of choices to select the appropriate VoIP service provider. There are many providers of VoIP services and so selection requires a bit of caution.