Do Telephone Calls over the Internet Still Confuse You?

VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) is a terrible acronym but a great technology. But the industry thinks many people still believe many “myths” about running telephone traffic over the Internet. If Internet telephones don't work in your situation, that's one thing, but don't let old information keep you from leveraging new services and cost savings.

One vendor, Speakeasy, sells Internet telephone services called “hosted VoIP” where the only equipment on your premise are the Internet telephones and the Internet connection. The company has anointed itself the “VoIP Myth Buster” and called me up to explain why.

CEO Bruce Chatterly says Speakeasy started more than a dozen years ago as an Internet Service Provider for consumers. Over time, it shifted to supplying Internet bandwidth to small businesses with a technology Chatterly calls “Ethernet over copper” that combines telephone connections with support for higher bandwidths.

To continue reading, register here and become an Insider. You'll get free access to premium content from CIO, Computerworld, CSO, InfoWorld, and Network World. See more Insider content or sign in.

VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) is a terrible acronym but a great technology. But the industry thinks many people still believe many “myths” about running telephone traffic over the Internet. If Internet telephones don't work in your situation, that's one thing, but don't let old information keep you from leveraging new services and cost savings.

One vendor, Speakeasy, sells Internet telephone services called “hosted VoIP” where the only equipment on your premise are the Internet telephones and the Internet connection. The company has anointed itself the “VoIP Myth Buster” and called me up to explain why.

CEO Bruce Chatterly says Speakeasy started more than a dozen years ago as an Internet Service Provider for consumers. Over time, it shifted to supplying Internet bandwidth to small businesses with a technology Chatterly calls “Ethernet over copper” that combines telephone connections with support for higher bandwidths.

A good bandwidth foundation makes for great voice over the Internet, so the company expanded into hosted voice services. Where your old phone system needed separate wiring, a PBX box in a closet and service calls to make changes, hosted VoIP uses your existing data cabling and a Web browser interface to a server at Speakeasy that lets you make almost all the phone system changes.

Speakeasy admits, and I'll second this statement, that early Internet telephony systems stunk pretty badly. I remember meeting one local reseller who claimed to “sell VoIP systems before VoIP systems actually worked.” Now they work, but some of the bad experiences still resonate for many potential customers, and Speakeasy touts five myths it wants to bust.

The first myth is that VoIP won't really save much money. Since “much” is a subjective term, that could be true. However, Speakeasy says its customers save over 45% compared to traditional solutions. Add in lower service costs gained by using a Web browser to make changes rather than calling a service tech, and the savings adds up.

While less cost is great, more features are better, says Travis Cross, CEO of OfficeTone, another “Business Connect VoIP” provider. “Cost very rarely drives businesses to adopt VoIP,” says Cross. “Business owners find the new technology allows them to operate in ways they previously could not.” Cross lists features such as office extensions in home offices, local numbers in remote cities, and flexible call routing as some of the features popular with customers.

In my experience, cost savings almost never triggers a phone upgrade for a small company. Most ignore their phone system, and costs, until they either need to move locations or their phone equipment lease runs out. Costs matter then, but only after the decision to change phone systems is made.

The second myth? VoIP is too much of a hassle to set up. True before, false now. In fact, Speakeasy’s Chatterly says “many of our installations don't need any onsite contacts.” Speakeasy has support in service areas across much of the country, but many times customers simply open the boxes, plug in the phones and start talking.