10 Terms to Understand When Looking at Business Phone Systems

The technology which is used to transmit voice over the internet is known as VoIP. The process of VoIP begins when voice is first converted into digital data which is then turned into small packets. These packets are embedded with the destination IP address and routed over the Internet. Once travelled, at the receiving end, the respective digital data is converted into voice and fed into the user's phone. Phono business phone systems are referred to as “VoIP” phone systems because they are powered entirely by the Internet.

The Internet Protocol or IP defines the way which data packets, also known as datagrams, should be moved between the destination and the source. To put it in a technical space, it can be defined as the network layer protocol in the TCP/IP communications protocol suite. If you can consider VoIP as a long road, then IP is the exits which ultimately define where data should get on and off.

One of the most commonly used terms, Kbps is the acronym for kilobits per second. It is used to indicate the data transfer speed. For example, if your modem speed is 1Kbps, then it indicates that your modem can route data at the speed of one thousand bits per second. More the speed, better the call quality.

There is an amount of data than can be transmitted over a communication line in a fixed amount of time. That amount data are defined as Bandwidth. It is generally denoted by bits per second (bps) or bytes per second for digital devices and in cycles per second, or Hertz (Hz) for analog devices. It is important to have a better bandwidth to handle VoIP to turn your office into a fully capable organization.

SIP or Session Initiation Protocol, is an IP telephony signaling protocol. Primarily used for voice over IP (VoIP) calls, there is a choice to use it for instant messaging but with some extensions.

A telephone which is used to make voice calls over the internet using SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) standard is called as a SIP phone. It should be noted that, every phone in the market isn't a SIP-enabled telephone. When comparing business phone systems, ask your prospective providers if they support your phone or can make a recommendation of SIP phones.

Softphone is a software application and is installed in the user’s PC. It uses the Voice over IP technology to route voice calls over the net. Microphone and speakers plugged into the sound card provides the audio. One limitation which comes with Softphone is that the phone calls can be made only through a PC. And to look at its better side, all you need is a laptop and a headset to make the phone call. It is highly useful when you are travelling or away from the office and can connect to the calls just through a laptop.

Private Branch Exchange is a telephone switching system that interconnects telephone extensions to each other in-house as well as to the outside telephone network.

Hosted PBX can be best described as an Internet telephony solution which follows the software as a Service (SAAS) model by hosting phone system equipment in remote data centers so that it can be managed from a web interface rather than through the administration of physical on-premise equipment. Remember the old closet full of equipment that your office used to have years ago? That’s an “on-premise” PBX and most modern business phone systems for small business have moved beyond this technologically bulky model to hosted services.

Direct Inward Dialing is the service that provides a block of telephone numbers for calling into a company’s private branch exchange (PBX) system. The highlight if DID or Direct Inward Dialing service is that, a company can offer its customers individual phone numbers for each person or workstation within the company without requiring a physical line into the PBX for each of the individual connections.