Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) has become one of the prominent features of IT in recent years. It uses the internet to carry voice calls to any telephone worldwide. The service is replacing traditional telephone connections in a simpler manner and offers cheaper call rates due to the advantages of Internet technology. Since VoIP’s beginnings (1995) the quality of services and technology behind them has greatly improved. Although VoIP technology is still not highly adopted in Australia, there are some very good reasons to take a serious look at it as an alternative to high telephone bills. Since VoIP sends voice across the internet as data packages, calls largely bypass the expensive PSTN copper voice telephone so that those costs are avoided. Savings become enormous when it comes to long-distance and overseas calls.

Deploying VoIP in a small and medium business does not just replace the existing phone system; it adds more features, quality and fluidity to the company. A VoIP system and a traditional phone system just cannot be compared. When a business is looking to expand their existing telephone system to meet growth, scaling up can be an expensive process. Fixed-line PBXs have limits as to how many numbers or extensions you could have.

With a VoIP system, such restrictions are a thing of the past. Unlimited phone numbers and extensions can be created within an office environment much more easily and therefore less expensively than with its traditional counterpart. Since VoIP is data-based, the technology is naturally more flexible than traditional telephony, and offers a vast array of features, mostly for free, that would previously stack up on your traditional phone bill. VoIP software can offer much more than the traditional extras offered by telephony providers, such as IVR and other rather innovative ways to integrate software with voice.