What is VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol)?
Voice over IP works by using protocol technologies and SIP is one protocol that enables VoIP. Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is a communication protocol for VoIP calls and other text and multimedia sessions, such as instant messaging and video. SIP trunking, based on the SIP protocol, is basically a service established virtually over your internet connections and provided by Internet Telephony Service Providers (ITSP), eliminating the physical connection to a phone company.
VoIP, or Voice-over-Internet-Protocol (sometimes referred to as Voice-over-IP) is a technology that allows individuals and businesses to make telephone calls (voice calls) over an internet connection, as opposed to the traditional fixed-lines service.
Traditionally, legacy phone systems carry voice signals using analog phone lines so it requires the setup of circuit wiring to make and receive calls. Under this circumstance, a piece of specialized hardware equipment called Private Branch Exchange (PBX) is used to connect internal phone extensions to the public telephone network.
Rather than sending data packets over a traditional circuit-switched network, VoIP, the abbreviation for Voice over Internet Protocol, sometimes also referred to as IP telephony, is a technology that converts voice into digital signals that can be transmitted over internet digital data packets via your local area network/WAN/other infrastructure to enable phone calls. VoIP uses RTP (real-time protocol) to ensure that these packets get delivered timely. You can use either an ethernet cable or a high-speed WiFi connection for VoIP.
This might sound very difficult and confusing, but in essence, instead of using your internet (ADSL, Fiber Internet or LTE) to only connect to the internet, you can now use this same technology to carry your voice calls. This great new feature that technology offer, has brought numerous new advantages and features to the business world, and has allowed many businesses to grow exponentially while reducing their telephone cost.
Bicata delivers cost-effective and flexible solutions for service providers or operators. As the IP Communications landscape continues to become more complicated, Bicata connectivity products continue to provide a low-cost long distance alternative by connecting disparate networks, devices, appliances and people.
What is a PBX phone system?
PBX stands for Private Branch Exchange System, which is a private telephone network used within a company or organization. The users of the PBX phone system can communicate internally (within their company) and externally (with the outside world), using different communication channels like Voice over IP, ISDN or analog. A PBX or PABX also allows you to have more phones than physical phone lines (PTSN) and allows free calls between users. Additionally, it provides features like transfer calls, voicemail, call recording, interactive voice menus (IVRs) and call queues.
How does an IP PBX work?
IP PBX phone systems place and receive phone calls over the internet. It does so by converting analog voice signals into digital. From there, it directs calls to a VoIP service provider to manage the initiation and termination of every call.
At the core, IP-based voice service uses Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). This universal protocol has become the standard for VoIP phone systems. For a PBX, you would use SIP trunking, which offers multiple voice channels.
On the inner side of a PBX, that remains unchanged. Users can call each other, check voicemail, and set up call groups as they could before. It’s by design.
On the outer side of a PBX, a VoIP provider would give a set of credentials for one or more SIP trunking accounts. Once authenticated, incoming calls are presented to your PBX to accept. Users can also reach an outside phone line by way of your SIP trunk automatically.
The PBX itself determines if calls are handled internally or relayed over to the PSTN.
You should know its limitations, but first, here are the advantages of adding a VoIP gateway to your PBX.
If your phone system is older than 2 years and hardware based, then in all likelyhood it’s obsolete. At the rate technology evolves, businesses can expect hardware to have a 1 to 2 year life span. This is where a software based 3CX Cloud Hosted PBX comes into play. Instead of spending thousands of dollars on hardware with a limited lifespan and thousands of dollars to maintaining that aging hardware, switch to our 3CX Cloud Hosted PBX! Enjoy the latest features as they become available. Let your phone system easily evolve and grow with your company instead pouring thousands into costly upgrades. As for ongoing costs, we offer our 3CX Cloud Hosted PBX as a per extension pricing model.
When you add employees, our system effortlessly scales on the back end to meet that growth. All the support and troubleshooting in included along with the service and with some packages, even the desk phone hardware. All this at one low monthly rate! We have partnered with 3CX, a leader in IP telecommunications innovation, to offer companies cost friendly packages packed with tremendous features and value. If you’re ready to experience the cutting edge features of a 3CX Cloud Based PBX.
Why choose 3CX as your business phone system?
As from 3cx website
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Low Pricing: 3CX offers flat rate annual pricing. When compared to monthly plans that charge per user, this can save businesses up to 80% on monthly phone costs
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Flexible Licensing: Pricing is also based on simultaneous calls. If a business has 50 users, most phone system providers charge for all 50 lines. Even if they use only 10 lines at a time
- Flexibility: With 3CX, businesses choose their own SIP trunk and VoIP phones. Since 3CX is an open platform, it integrates with most common service providers and hardware. This means savings on hardware, toll-free numbers, long-distance calling and more.
- Complete communication system: 3CX offers video conferencing and live chat included in the cost. It also integrates with the most common CRMs, Facebook business messages and instant messaging.
- Mobility: 3CX offers full-featured apps for web browsers as well as iOS and Android devices.
- Easy Scalability: As a business grows, 3CX’s software scales easily. Flexible licensing likewise makes it easy to increase, or reduce, phone service.
3CX has established itself as the leading IP-PBX manufacturer, ticking all the checkboxes for any business looking for enterprise-grade features.
