| VoIP usage in general, and especially Business VoIP, | | | | providers that make the technology more viable for |
| has increased significantly in recent years. VoIP stands | | | | businesses. The most significant are voicemail and call |
| for Voice over Internet Protocol and is the technology | | | | forwarding. Voicemail is not possible with computer to |
| used for voice communication over a broadband | | | | computer VoIP, but is necessary for many businesses. |
| internet connection. | | | | Call forwarding means many calls can be made |
| When VoIP first came onto the market its usage | | | | simultaneously within a business and calls can be |
| consisted of people talking through their computers to | | | | passed from one member of staff to another. Other |
| one another. The quality was poor and was widely | | | | services now available include caller ID, call waiting and |
| thought of as not being appropriate for business use. | | | | call blocking. All these mean that the service can be |
| Not only that, the service was also inadequate with no | | | | more efficient and more businesses feel that VoIP |
| extras on top of simply making and receiving calls. All | | | | meets their requirements. |
| this meant that businesses rarely chose VoIP and it | | | | The future of VoIP looks good, with quality and |
| was mostly used by home users looking for a cheap | | | | services likely to see further improvements. More and |
| way to speak to family and friends. | | | | more providers are coming onto the market, making it |
| This situation is much changed now though. More | | | | a more competitive area and improving the quality. It |
| recently more advanced ways of using VoIP have | | | | has been predicted by In-Stat that 79% of American |
| materialised, with VoIP adapters and VoIP phones | | | | businesses will be using VoIP by 2013. This estimation |
| coming onto the market. VoIP adapters allow users to | | | | shows how much business VoIP has increased in |
| use their existing phones to speak through their | | | | recent years and the continued advancement of the |
| computers, while VoIP phones are a telephone like | | | | technology. It is very possible that VoIP will soon |
| piece of equipment that use the internet connection (as | | | | overtake regular telephones, both for personal and |
| all VoIP does) to communicate. The user experience is | | | | business use. Turning to business VoIP no longer has a |
| identical to that of a telephone user. These are much | | | | negative impact on businesses. The main positive is |
| more appropriate to businesses. The quality of VoIP | | | | that significant savings can be made compared with |
| has been massively improved as well. This makes calls | | | | traditional telephones. With many VoIP providers the |
| with quality VoIP providers indistinguishable from those | | | | quality and service is now on a par with telephone |
| made using a telephone. | | | | providers and it is cheaper, so it is easy to see why so |
| There are many features now available through VoIP | | | | many businesses are switching to VoIP. |