How Does a VoIP Call Work?

VoIP telephony is in the process of displacing traditional landlines, include digital trunks such as T1 and ISDN PRI. What is it that is different about VoIP phone calls and what advantages does this technology offer?

You’ll hear VoIP referred to as a network service rather than a telephone service. This is an important distinction for network engineers and business owners, but not of much concern to users. One telephone set looks pretty much like another. When you lift the handset, you expect to hear dial tone and be able to dial out. When the phone rings, you expect to pick up the handset and hear the party on the other end and have a conversation.

A lot of engineering work has gone into making VoIP phone calls mimic traditional landline telephone calls as much as possible. The ideal has been that you shouldn’t be able to tell a difference. Now that this goal has been generally achieved, the new ideal is to make VoIP calls sound more lifelike than anything you’ve heard through a telephone. It’s something called HD or high definition voice.

The telephone connection is what determines whether you are using traditional telephony or VoIP. A traditional analog telephone line is based on technology that goes back over a century. It consists of two copper wires twisted together that connect a particular phone all the way to the telephone company office and into the central switching system. This line has certain AC and DC voltages and other characteristics. Often the phone line provides power to the telephone set. The phone itself has evolved from electromechanical components to relatively simple electronics. It just needs to have the proper characteristics to interface with the analog line.

This carries over to in-house telephone systems such as Key telephones or Private Branch Exchange (PBX). These are small switching systems that handle internal calls to keep them off the public telephone network. The in-house phone system connects to each phone in the company with a pair of wires that mimic the line from the phone company.

VoIP uses your company computer network as its phone line. For this to work, the phone has to include circuitry that makes it look like a network peripheral and be compatible with everything else on the network, including computers, printers, servers and so on. Phones that do this are called IP phones or SIP phones. They have a standard RJ-45 Ethernet jack on the back of the phone to connect to the network. They can be powered over this same connection by special POE (Power over Ethernet) switches or have separate plug-in power supplies to operate the internal electronics.

Smaller companies and residential users of VoIP can use regular telephone sets by plugging them into an ATA or Analog Telephone Adapter. This adapter has the electronics that you would find inside an IP Telephone.

VoIP gets its name from Voice over Internet Protocol. That doesn’t mean it has to run on the Internet, although some low cost VoIP services do use the Internet as your line to the service provider in order to save money. IP or Internet Protocol describes the technology used by Ethernet Local Area Networks. It’s what makes the Internet work and also runs many networks that don’t connect to the public Internet.

Actually, it’s easier to achieve high voice quality by avoiding the public Internet completely and connecting to your phone service provider through an extension of your network called a SIP Trunk. SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) is the switching technology for VoIP systems. The SIP Trunk takes the place of the analog, T1 or ISDN PRI telephone line that normally goes to the local telephone company.

You can set up a VoIP telephone system in your company that shares your computer network, including any WAN (Wide Area Network) connections between business locations. You’ll install a IP PBX to handle switching calls between office phones and connect to your service provider for outside lines. A newer option is to skip the IP PBX and rent Hosted PBX telephone switching from the same service provider that connects you to the public phone system. This saves a major investment and allows you to add more phones as you need them.

Are you considering installing a new business phone system or expanding or replacing one you already have? Get features and pricing for hosted PBX and telephone trunking optionsto help decide what makes the most sense for your company.

Flat Rate Toll Free Numbers

How would you like to have a toll free number for your business without the worry that you’ll never know how big your bill will be each month? What you are looking for is flat rate toll free service. Your bill is the same every month and you’ll get dozens of features included at no extra cost. Best of all, there’s no risk to try it because you can get a 14 day free trial of flat rate toll free service.

The flat rate service from iTeleCenter is just $49 a month for unlimited calls. You pay no per minute charges, no extra fees for features, no activation fees, no surcharges or hidden fees, no confusing plans and no contracts.

What are some of those special calling features? You get professional grade business phone service such as an auto attendant with main greeting voicemail to email or text transmission, multiple extension mailboxes, online faxing, follow-me call forwarding and 30 additional features.

How about the numbers available? You have two choices in how you pick your toll free number. The first way is to simply select from a list of 10 assorted numbers that are available. These have the prefixes 800, 866, 877 and 888. If you see one you like, just click on the radio button and proceed to order it. If not, then click the “generate more numbers” button and you’ll get a new list.

The other method is to search for a custom vanity number. What is a vanity number? That’s a phone number that spells out a word or phrase using the letters that appear on the numbers of the telephone dial. You can specify any available toll free prefix, or limit your search to 855 or 866 or 877 or 888. You can also use * for wildcard digits. Those are digits where you really don’t care what number comes up. Let’s try a couple of examples and see what we get.

Say you’re in the water conditioning business and want a memorable toll free number to advertise. We’ll say any prefix is OK and that we want the term “water” to be in the toll free number. Enter “water” into the search box and press the search button. Voila! Here’s what we get. There are 10 different toll free numbers available and they all spell out water within the number. You can choose from (877) 95WATER, (855) 60WATER, (877) WATGER88 and another seven options. Don’t much care for these? Click on the Generate More Numbers button and you’ll get another 10 options. These include (855) WATER08, (855) WATER30 and seven more that are similar.

Got the idea? You may want to play around with this search engine a bit to get something that relates to your business and is easy to remember. Note that 855 is a newly added toll free prefix. You’ll likely have more options with the 855 prefix than the others because it has only been available for about a year.

What makes this system better than old-school toll free number ordering is both the interactive vanity search feature plus instant availability of your chosen toll free number. That’s right. You select the number you want and then place your order online right away before anybody else gets the same idea. That starts your 14 day free trial period. Play around with the features, decide how much of an asset this is for your business, and keep using that number as long as you keep your toll free service.

Your Cell Phone Is A Tool For International Business

Do you conduct business internationally? If so, your cell phone can be the business machine that keeps you in touch with clients overseas.

The first tool you’ll want is a way to make cheap international phone calls from your cellphone while using U.S. mobile service. The cell phone plan that enables you to make local and long distance domestic calls may well prohibit calls outside the country. If you can make them, you’ll pay a pretty penny. So, right now you wait until you have access to your landline or VoIP calling service to make those calls. Sometimes, that’s really inconvenient. So much so that you could lose a valuable customer just because you aren’t available.

There’s a better way. Use a low cost international dial-around service when you need to call overseas. You simply dial a local or toll-free access number to reach the service. Then dial the international number you want to reach. It’s that simple. You’ll pay just a few pennies per minute to call many destinations. With the special promo plan that’s available right now, calls to China are just 1 cent per minute. Call to Canada are less than a penny a minute.

You might not even be able to call that cheaply on your landline or VoIP service. No problem, use the Tel3Advantage international calling service from any phone you happen to be at. The rates are incredibly low and the service is easy to use. In fact, you can download a special app for many cell phone models so that making international calls is as easy as calling the next state.

But what happens when you need to travel overseas and call back home. If you’d like to use your cell phone, then you’ll be accessing the towers and cellular service in the countries you’re visiting. For that you need the right cell phone and access.

In the United States there are two competing cellular technology standards. One is CDMA used by Verizon and Sprint. The other is GSM used by AT&T and T-Mobile. GSM is the global standard, so you need a GSM phone if you expect to use it outside U.S. borders. The best phones for this are called quad-band GSM phones. They can access all 4 international mobile bands, so they work virtually anywhere.

You also need a phone where you can access the SIM card. That’s a tiny circuit card, often located behind the battery, that is removable in many GSM phones. When you travel outside the U.S., you replace your domestic SIM card with an international SIM card. A great value is the OneSimCard prepaid international SIM card. With it in your GSM phone, you’ll save up to 85% on your calls and even receive calls for free in more than 60 countries. If you don’t have a GSM phone or are only traveling for a short time, you can also rent a mobile phone for a small fee from OneSimCard.

With business becoming increasingly more global in nature, these simple tools can give you the capability of being an international player wherever you happen to be. Why, it’s enough to start shopping for a more capable cell phone.

Clearest International Calls on Your Cell Phone

You want to make international phone calls but you’re not all that happy with VoIP and you’d really like to use your cell phone. Is there a way to get the clearest international calls from a mobile phone?

There sure is, especially if you are located in the U.S. or Canada. The secret is a special service that works with your cell phone but gives you cheap international calling with excellent voice quality.

The service is Tel3Advantage’s international long distance service. It allows you to call international from any phone at rates as low as 1 cent per minute. There’s a promotion going, so you’ll get special discounted rates for 30 days plus free minutes on sign-up. Even the regular rates are excellent. How about 1.7 cents to call China any day? How about making that call on your cell phone?

If you’ve ever picked up your home or office phone, or worse yet your cell phone, and dialed an international number, you know the feeling of shock and horror that comes when you open the next phone bill. Those services may be fine for local and state to state calls, but the international rates can be sky high. Phone companies like to keep that quiet, so you often don’t find out until you actually call overseas.

Tel3Advantage is a specialized telephone service called international dial-around. All they do is long distance. You use whatever phone you already have. Just dial one of their local access numbers or a special toll free number to access the service. Then place your international call. You’ll be talking for pennies a minute. In fact, it’s such a good deal that you may want to use it for your domestic long distance calls also.

But what about call quality? Many people have been driven to VoIP to avoid high international calling rates. But unless your broadband access is excellent and everything is running smoothly on the Internet, calls can easily become garbled or dropped completely. Plus most VoIP services want to give you local and long distance service as a bundle, something you may not even need. Don't forget that VoIP runs on DSL or Cable broadband. That ties you to your home or office landline when you’d really rather be mobile with your cell phone.

The Tel3Advantage system works with any phone, including your cell phone. It maintains the call quality that you already enjoy on local and long distance calls. What’s different is your ability to call around the world at bargain rates. There’s no big commitment to worry about, because there are no contracts or obligations with this service. You buy time and use it when you wish.

Here’s another bonus. Tel3Advantage offers a special “TEL3 Smartplug” software download for your cell phone. The Smartplug knows the access numbers, so you can simply call the number you want as if you are using conventional long distance service. The big difference is about an 80% savings on your calls.

If you have US or Canada phone service but have friends, family or business contacts in another country that you’d really like to call if it wasn’t so expensive, then learn more about Tel3Advantage international calling and enjoy new freedom in making phone calls anywhere around the world.

New Online Tool Finds Better International Long Distance Rates

Do you make international or overseas telephone calls? Expensive, aren't they? Well, help is here in the form of a new long distance rate finder tailored to the international caller.

The problem with phone rates is that you're never sure if you're paying a reasonable rate or missing out just because you don't about better rates that have only recently become available. You can do your own online searches, work your way through the vendor's websites, and pick the one with the lowest rate. But that can take hours. You'll probably give up after looking at just a few offers because it's too much like work. What if you could comparison shop a wide variety of competitive carriers and see in seconds what the best deals are?

That's what the International Long Distance Rate Finder does for you. Go ahead and click on this link or the screen shot image and the rate finder will open in another window so you can follow along.

The first thing you see is that the interface is very simple, even sparse. There are only two steps to get started. You need to select the country you are calling from and the country you are calling to. That's really all the database needs to run your search on a reasonable data set. You'll notice that nothing is asking you for your name, address, phone number, email or anything else personal. There's no need for that information to generate a rate list, so your privacy is easily protected.

Let's try one. We'll call from the United States to China. The United States is already selected, so you can just leave that box alone. Using the pull-down menu select China as the country in "STEP 2". If there is a specific number you want to call, you can enter that for a more precise targeting of rates. But just the country will do.

Notice that a "STEP 3" box now appears with more choices highlighted in an orange color. You can just click the radio button that says "China". Or you can more precisely target an area in China. The reason for this is that there are often lower rates to specific areas of a country. If they are available and you can, say, select Beijing, then you may get a better rate than just the general rate to China. If you are calling a mobile phone, select "China (cellular)". Rates to mobile users are different, usually higher, so you might as well know what your call is really going to cost.

Let's just stick with China in general for right now. Now click on the black "Search For Rates" button. In a couple of seconds, literally, you'll get a chart of carriers and their rates to China. I count 20 separate service providers and their rates to China. They are ranked from lowest per minute cost to highest. In this case, the best rate is from Packet8. This is a VoIP provider who charges 1 cent per minute for calls from the USA to China. You'll also see what it costs for a 5 minute call (5 cents) and a 30 second call (30 cents). Since the billing increment is 6 seconds for this provider, it doesn't affect the cost of these calls. If you made a 5 second call, you'd still pay for 6 seconds. Big deal. Well, some carriers bill in larger increments of 60 seconds, so sometimes it matters.

Want to know more about Packet8? Click on the magnifying glass next to the name or on the linked name of the service provider. You'll be taken to their site where you can get a lot more detail about the services they offer. You also have the option to order service right from this page by clicking on the "Order Now" link on the right hand side of the page.

Notice that there are a wide variety of service providers offering low rates to China. You can select a VoIP service or dial-around, 1-Plus service, post paid calling card or conference call, depending on your particular need. If you want to limit the display to a particular type of service, unclick the check boxes of the services you don't want. You'll find those at the top of the chart.

Of course, you can change your search parameters at any time. There's a link called "Make changes to your search" at the bottom of the chart. Pick another pair of countries or different areas within your desired country and you'll get different results.

You may want to play around with this tool to get a better feel for what is available and how to use the service. You may also want to book mark the International Long Distance Rate Finder so you can come back whenever your needs change and run an up to date search for the lowest telephone rates to wherever you want to call.