Broadband Phone Technology - Top 5 Reasons You Should Take
Notice
For the uninitiated, the term broadband
phone is loosely used to describe the technology currently
available where one can make telephone calls from a telephone
system that sends the voice signal over your internet
connection. The call may terminate at a regular phone line or
another broadband phone.
Until recently, the technology was not being used widely because
of its perceived limitations, including lack of features
available. The primary issue however has been that of poor call
quality.
Now, continuing improvements in the industry and increased
competition pushing the development of the technology have
resulted in significant progress, to the extent that some
analysts now predict that broadband phones (really Voice over
Internet Protocol technologies) will dominate the long distance
calling market by 2010 - maybe sooner.
Here are some specific reasons why you may find broadband phones
a good fit at this stage.
Reason #5: Portability and Ease of Use
The equipment provided by the broadband phone companies can be
used wherever you have access to a high speed connection. Most
broadband service companies do not restrict you from traveling
with your phone. As long as the network that you are plugging
into will "automagically" assign your broadband device an
internet address (IP address) - and most will - you are up and
running.
This means that you can be in a hotel in Japan and still be
accessible at the same phone number - your kids or staff don't
need to know the hotel's number.
Reason #4: Long Distance Savings
Broadband services typically come with lower long distance rates
than you can get from most traditional carriers. This calculates
into immediate cost savings. Some services allow you to add one
or more virtual numbers to your main phone number. This means
that your phone may be able to receive calls from 2 or more
different area codes. This virtually eliminates long-distance
phoning charges for anyone calling within those numbers' area
codes.
Reason #3: Freedom from Tariffs
For the time being, calls made over the internet are not subject
to a lot of the tariffs that afflict your regular phone bill.
How long will this persist? There are different opinions on this
in the industry, but right now it's a nice advantage that makes
for an even lower phone bill.
Reason #2: Availability of High Speed Internet
All the cost saving and convenience reasons already mentioned
would not do much to propel the growth of the broadband phone
market if consumers did not have access to high speed
connections at their homes.
Broadband phones perform the best when using cable or DSL
highspeed internet connections. While companies that have local
area networks with high speed connections to the internet can
investigate VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) relatively
easily.
Reason #1: Clarity of Sound
The top reason why broadband phone services are currently making
swift inroads is that the call quality has significantly
improved. All of the major players now offer services that work
satisfactorily for residential use and some can consistently
meet the most stringent business requirements for clarity.
Finally, considering the initial small investment that may be
required to get a broadband phone account up and running, the
volume of savings you are likely to experience within a short
period is very significant. The flexibility, ease of use
(technical know-how not needed) combined with improvement in
quality definitely makes this bandwagon a good ride.