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Toll-free numbers are a must in certain business
models, but in the article below, Jason points out you can save even
more money by using VoIP technology to create a local presence in
virtually any community. The most important thing is to provide your
customers a way to contact your business without costing them
anything. This can be accomplished via one of two methods, via
a Toll-Free Number or via a VoIP Virtual Telephone
Number.
The use of Virtual Telephone Numbers for your business may be a good idea for some
businesses, but it may be a very expensive proposition if you have
just a few customers calling you from many different areas.
Please take a look at our article to see our opinion on VoIP and Toll-Free
Numbers.
As
a Rule of Thumb, if a business has over 130 incoming call minutes
per month from a particular town/city, it may be cost effective for
the business to get a VoIP Virtual Telephone Number. If the business
receives less than 130 incoming call minutes per month from a
particular town/city, then it is more cost effective to use a
Toll-Free Number is case.
Voice over IP Offers Your Business an
Inexpensive Alternative To Toll Free Numbers
By Jason Morris
New businesses can now let their customers contact them
for free or inexpensively with the use of Voice over IP telephony,
without having to lease the ever more expensive toll free numbers
offered by many telecoms companies around the world. With Voice over
IP telephony, local numbers can be setup in scores of towns and
cities across a country at relatively low costs. These can then
connect to a central Voice over IP service provider, which will
allow free or low rate calls to you from your customers.
Internet telephony or Voice over IP as it is more
commonly known has been hailed as the next big thing in the
telecommunications world for quite some time. In the past it has
been plagued with poor sound and connection quality, as well as
complex and frustrating installations.
With huge advances in Voice over IP technology in the
last few years, you no longer have to sit at your computer in order
to make a phone call over the Internet using Voice over IP. It is
now possible to use an ordinary phone, connected to a Voice over IP
adaptor (gateway). Some specialized Voice over IP phones (IP phones)
have this technology built into their circuitry, effectively
allowing you to plug and play.
Voice over IP splits your voice into Internet Protocol
Data Packets. These packets are then routed over the Internet. This
makes it a lot cheaper for Voice over IP service providers to carry
your calls. Using this method Voice over IP service providers only
have to pay a small termination fee at the point where they drop
your call off. This in turn make Voice over IP extremely cost
effective for those companies who cannot afford the high costs
associated with those of toll free numbers. It would then become
possible for example to rent phone numbers in major cities across a
country at cheap rates, and people in these cities would then be
able to talk to you for just the cost of a local call.
In
the past few years Voice over IP has matured and is fast becoming
the way to make cheap rate calls both nationally and
internationally. In fact most major telecoms companies around the
world, are now gearing up to charge us for the amount of data sent
or received, as opposed to the length of call time. Many businesses
are taking early advantage of the huge cost savings for them and
their customers, through the implementation of Voice over IP
telephony.
Thanks for reading my article. Please feel free to give
it a rating at the bottom of this page.
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Jason Morris is co-author, search engine optimization and
marketing consultant of Business Phone Systems
Direct. An established communications
company, offering advice and implementation of high quality business
phone
systems.
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