Over time, business voice communication has moved away from a traditional landline to a virtual landline system. In reality, even though some of the users don’t recognize its value but the lots of users in the UK have already admired it. This is the reason 99.9% of business VoIP systems user are satisfied with the technology and happy to move their business communication from traditional to virtual landline systems and ready to advance their carrier by upgrading their communications.
Both companies and customers have witnessed that the immense growth in Business VoIP communications, there are no signs of it slowing down. However, only some businesses do not understand the difference between a Virtual phone system or a Landline phone system. Since virtual landline is becoming famous over time it is important to understand why it is so much successful. Virtual landline and traditional phone services differ in terms of pricing, features, and business model.
Virtual Landline Vs. Traditional Landline
What is the difference between Virtual and traditional landlines? Here we discuss few points why should business switch over to Virtual landlines.
Essential Technology – Circuits and Packets
Virtual Landline is known as an upgrade from regular voice calls and it uses a unique type of technology to send voice data across to the other end of the call. Virtual or VoIP system usually stands for Internet Protocol and is described precisely how the technology works. Generally, voice calls travel via copper lines over the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN).
The PSTN uses circuit switching technology to complete this task. In contrast, VoIP routes the voice calls over data networks, for instance, the internet or internal enterprise LANs. VoIP Systems utilises packet switching technology, a similar underlying principle in every form of communication on the internet.
Virtual Landline Pricing
Whenever a call is made through a traditional landline, the circuits open from the location of the caller to the place of call destination. Throughout the duration of the call, the circuit has to be kept open there for traditionally long distance calls are very expensive. The longer the distance of a call the more circuits it would require to be opened and held up as no other call can travel that same route.
Virtual landline works by converting human voice into data packets and then these packets are sent to their destinations. Further, these packets don’t need to travel, and most often take different routes to get to their destination. After that, the packets are assembled in the right order and then are converted into sound at the end of the receiver. In addition, there is no different infrastructure needed for a Virtual system, it uses an existing internet connection that is already available. This lets virtual landline operators charge just a portion of the cost as compared to the traditional telephone carriers.
The Distinction between Consumer and Business Lines
In general customers and enterprise, lines have an obvious distinction. It is a lot costly for a person to buy or lease a business line. Such as, if you are working from home as a freelancer or you run a small business from your garage. You may require a particular business feature to present a professional image to your customers, but the charges of business lines would keep them out of reach.
On the contrary, VoIP features eliminate this distinction and make businesses a lot more affordable for small business owners and entrepreneurs. In the majority of cases, there is only one difference between a customer and a business VoIP phone system which is of price or the list of features that are offered. There are not many providers which cater to the small business exclusively by offering them a mixture of business features but at affordable charges.
Power and Internet Requirements
Traditional phone lines offer an extraordinary advantage: They don’t need external power to work. The phone line works even if there is no power or internet. On the contrary, a Virtual landline needs both power and a stable internet connection to make and receive phone calls.
Silo versus Interoperability
For a long time, landlines have existed as a silo, being separate from the other digital form of communication such as email or instant messaging. It meant that calling remained separate from the internet and app ecosystem. At the time when the internet was new, this separation didn’t appear to be a problem but over time online connectivity and cloud technology has become a significant part of the workflow.
Fortunately, the Virtual system eliminates this separation by including calling to the same network as the other means of communication like email, messaging, video calling and file transferring, etc. The virtual landline system includes a lot of enterprise applications so that it can enable easy data transfer and further proficient processes.
Calling from any device
Traditional landline users were very restricted as they could only use one device that had to be put in a fixed location. The phone number of the line used to be connected to a physical location via area codes rather than the user. However, Virtual landlines do things differently.
The phone number that is assigned to you when you buy VoIP services can be used to make calls from any compatible device such as desk phones, laptops, PCs, mobile phones, or tablets. VoIP numbers are not bound by physical location then you are free to take it where ever you go. This is certainly a useful feature for all kinds of businesses as there is no need for a professional technician or the hassle of transferring physical lines from one place to the other. As long as you have access to an active internet connection you can make calls from any device.
What Hasn’t Changed with Virtual Landline and VoIP?
Before knowing how Virtual Landline has revolutionized communications it is also important to know the things that have not changed. For example, for the caller, the experience remains the same. However, behind the scenes, a lot of things work in a different way. There is a lot of features that we mostly take for granted on landlines like you can even add texting to landlines.
Voicemail, putting someone on hold, forwarding calls to an alternate number and IVR systems are all available on VoIP. Most people may not know it but VoIP also offers to fax facility. However, the process of implementation, configuration, and modification of these features has changed a lot.
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