VOIP explanation and Case Study

Voice over IP is often mis-interpreted as requiring computer equipment to function in a way similar to that of Skype. This is wrong. VOIP is a method of utilising the Internet to carry telephone calls rather than the standard telephone network. Calls can be VOIP to VOIP number (free) or VOIP to landline, mobile, international which means the Internet carries your voice data and then the call simply terminates at the standard telephone network and then routed to the destination.

Recently a recruitment company downsized from a staffed office to a home office. Firbanks were approached to handle the IT move. When BT were called to explain the situation the customer was told by BT that the customer would need a new phone number when moving to the home office as the Exchanges were in different locations.

Mark Banks of Firbanks IT explained an alternative to the customer. You do not need to process this through BT but you could move your number in to our online telephone system and then practically use the telephone anywhere with an internet connection. Mark Banks signed the customer up to a single number telephone system at a cost of £5 per month, for this the customer received the usual call divert, caller display, call waiting at no additional cost and all that was required to keep the phone number was to fill out a number porting form. This gives us permission to approach BT and gain control of the telephone number. During the transfer process it was possible to set the outbound caller ID to that of the customer's main number, use call diversion until the number had fully ported to our IP telephone system.

The customer now owns a Siemens DECT handset very similar to that of a standard cordless handset with a base that plugs in to his home broadband router. The customer now has a 2nd phone line that he can use for work at home without making an impact on his home phone line and no high installation fees or long wait times and all provided for £5 per month!

As a comparison, previously the customer used an ISDN based switchboard with average quarterly phone bills averaging £500.