IP / VOIP

What is VoIP?

IP telephony enables voice communication over internet protocol (IP) networks. Voice is digitized and broken up into packets of data which is then transmitted over the Local Area Network (LAN) shareing a single cable with the data. Outside the office VoIP means that voice can be transmitted between offices using simple and cheap private broadband circuits or over the internet to home workers and tele-workers. Skype is a simple VoIP application which allows users to talk to friends via the internet, but the quality is much lower than IP Telephone systems as the voice and data are not separated and voice has no Quality of Service standard applied.

What are the advantages of VoIP?

Sharing a single cable means you need half the cabling of a traditional solution – a significant saving if you are cabling a new building or if you are short of cable in an office.

The IP telephone can be unplugged, moved and re-connected with no specialist knowledge making office seating reorganisations quick and easy.

An office telephone can be installed at home or in a small office and remotely connected to the main office via broadband. This gives all the functionality of the main office at home including being part of hunt groups and answering patterns, call logging and call recording.

Users can log on to any phone and take with them all their functions and personal set-up. This makes hot-desking easy  and can reduce office space requirements for users who are often out of the office.
Offices can be linked together cheaply allowing centralized operators and voicemail. Telephone system features that were previously only available on a single site or were expensive to implement are now transparent across many offices linked by cheap broadband based private networks.

One administrator can now manage all the phones in all the offices and at home simply and easily from a web or windows based interface.

How difficult is it to implement VoIP on my network?

Existing LANs will be checked by Solar’s technical team who will ensure they are fit to carry Voice without disrupting the existing data applications. The new system can often be installed and tested while the old system continues to work on it separate cable, then cut over at a convenient time.