Phone systems In General

Phone systems are an integral part of any modern business, from the largest corporation to the smallest small business. The evolution of phone systems means that businesses are increasing in efficiency while enjoying cost savings. The days of the electronic switchboard and individual telephone operators are long gone. Millions of businesses have turned from these archaic traditional PBX systems and to IP phones, VoIP PBX's, and VoIP phone systems.

Traditional phone services (also known as "Plain Old Telephone Service"; a pejorative) used to use a PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) system. That meant that all phone calls had to go through each individual phone company's aging copper-wired telephone network. That's one of the reasons why those telephone companies could charge you an arm and a leg for calling two area codes away. VoIP phone systems, on the other hand, use IP telephony. That means VoIP phone systems use your Internet connection.

Not only is the Internet a much faster network than those old phone networks, it's also a much cheaper network. It's brand-new, high-tech, and high-volume. That means that because VoIP phones use the Internet, phone call costs are lower. In addition, many more advanced functions are available with VoIP phones. IP phone systems can also consolidate most of a company's communications. With a business VoIP phone system, or a VoIP-based unified communications solution (that's phone calls, Internet, faxing, messaging, and web conferencing, all in one place), that's all your needed communications services bundled together.

There are many different VoIP phone systems to choose between offered by hundreds of VoIP providers. IP PBX phone systems, for example, use either a hosted VoIP PBX or an on-premise IP PBX (those are different types of the virtual switchboards that VoIP companies can use and offer). A unified communications solution is best for larger companies, as they may need the increased functionality (and they may be able to stomach the increased cost) that a robust business phone system can bring