VoIP FAQ’s

I am painfully organized when it comes to my gmail. Seriously, you should see the amount of labels, and labels within labels I’ve got going on. The plus side to this madness is that I had a whole section devoted to important questions I wanted to some day add to Telonium’s Frequently Asked Questions page. Last week, I decided to finally update the FAQ section. Because a lot of the material for the new FAQ page came from conversations I’ve had with potential customers, I thought it might be useful to others too, and thus decided to share here.

The answers to many of these questions are the same for every VoIP provider.

What is VoIP? VoIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol, which means your voice service is delivered over an existing internet connection. This technology allows you to have phone service anywhere in the world as long as you have a high-speed Internet connection.

Is my company ready for VoIP? Most companies today are equipped with Internet connectivity, which is all you need to set up VoIP in your office. The question is whether you have an adequate amount of bandwidth to carry out your phone calls without degradation of voice quality. You can check your Internet connection by visiting our Internet Speed Test page. This page will explain how many extensions you can service using your existing Internet connection.

How much Internet bandwidth do I need? This is dependent on a number of circumstances and is something we will go over with you during the sales process if you have any concerns. But ordinarily you require approximately 90 kbps upload and download per call. You can use our Internet Speed Test to check if you have enough bandwidth for everyone at your office.

Why is price based on the number of extensions? Analog providers usually charge per line, but VoIP providers such as Telonium charge per extension due to the fact that VoIP technology allows for unlimited lines through your internet connection. In other words, no matter the number of extensions you buy, you’ll have unlimited lines (in reality, as many as your internet and phone can handle).

What’s the difference between a virtual extension and regular extension? Regular extensions give you all the functionality of a business phone system, including unlimited local and long distance, unlimited concurrent calls, and a fully-featured phone system. Virtual extensions rely on an external phone, such as a cell phone or home phone, and are usually less expensive than regular ones. This is because virtual extensions allow you to receive unlimited inbound calls but not make outbound calls. These are primarily useful for someone like a real estate agent or an outside sales rep since they’re often out of the office but don’t want to miss any important calls. With a virtual extension, calls that are coming in to their work number can be easily transferred to a cell phone.

Can I keep my existing number? Of course! We can port your existing number from your current provider. This may take anywhere from 2 to 5 weeks depending on your current provider, but you can start using our service almost immediately even before this process is complete.

How long does it take to activate my account? With Telonium, we can have you up and running almost immediately or in a couple weeks. It’s all dependent on your current provider.

Do you support 911 emergency services? Yes. In case of an emergency, rest assured that our service can handle proper routing of your 911 calls.

Can I use my analog phone or do I need to get new ones? You need an IP or SIP phone, it must be VoIP compatible. So more than likely, yes you would change because the chances that you have an analog phone are high. If you do have an IP phone, you can use it, we will just need to program our service with it.

Where do I plug the new phones in? The phones need to be connected to the internet, so usually a router. When you receive your phones, you are more than welcome to give us a call and someone can walk you through the steps.

What is a Softphone? A Softphone is software (similar to Skype) that you install onto your computer. It uses the speaker and microphone of your laptop/desktop. Softphones can be a great solution for frequent travelers.

What happens if the Internet or power goes down? If the power/Internet is down, the caller experience will not change; it will just seem like no one is available and callers will be able to leave a voicemail with you. You can customize what happens during these situations based on your preference. Telonium has recently added a Business Continuity feature for the rare event of phone system failures. The new feature automatically forwards all calls to an alternate phone number, such as your cell phone, and returns back to your regular business number once the system is restored.

Why use virtual fax? You can send a fax from anywhere – home, business trip, etc. and receive from anywhere (on your cell phone). It’s paperless = environmentally friendly, no paper and ink expenses especially involving spam, because while you still receive it, you only have to print faxes you want printed.

Feel free to check out all the questions and answers on our FAQ page. And as always if you have any questions about this blog post or would like to learn more about Telonium, shoot me an email at <my first name>@telonium.com.

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