Business Phone Systems: Business Phone Equipment's Move to VoIP Telephone Systems

Telephone systems became a part of business communications almost as soon as they were invented more than 100 years ago. For more than a century, all phone calls placed through office communication systems were made the same way. A business executive would contact someone through a landline telephone that accessed the public telephone network. Through wireline technology, business transactions were secured and finalized over one dedicated circuit that remained open until one party ended the call. As businesses grew to serve customers and work with vendors outside of their local areas and face-to-face communication dwindled, traditional landline telephone systems became a costly necessity for conducting business due to long-distance charges, poor connections and other interferences. That all changed when engineers and communication equipment manufacturers found ways to convert phone conversations into data packets - small chunks of digital data exactly like those that computers use to communicate. Once converted into data packets, phone conversations could be transported anywhere that computer data packets could go - including the Internet. This began the world of Internet telephony.

Sometimes called VoIP (for Voice over Internet Protocol), Internet telephony removes old boundaries. Through VoIP technology, office communication systems are no longer limited by the constraints of the traditional telephone network - opening a world of possibilities for business communication efficiency. For example, IP phone systems have the ability to connect telephone users anywhere in the world, making it possible for a sales manager to be sitting in a branch office in St. Louis or Seattle, using a VoIP telephone that is an actual extension from the company's home office in Dallas. Additionally, VoIP technology in business phone equipment enables businesses to connect extensions up to 100 branch offices outside of headquarters through unified communications systems. With VoIP telephone systems in place, these multiple branch offices, as well as remote users, can instantly communicate together, effectively creating one large office communication system. As a result, each of these individual locations can offer virtually all of the same features as the extensions connected in the main office without distance limitations, thus improving business operations through advanced communications and IP phone systems.



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