TerraSip mobile VoIP Community overtakes Freecall numbers on the fast lane
TerraSip S.A., a pioneering VoIP telephone company, has developed a standard which provides VoIP users with a simple way of making CRM systems, address books and other applications CTI compliant. “At last, with the development of the function ‘URL-Dialing’ we have managed to put the real advantages of VoIP into the hands of ordinary users.â€, as Daniel David, product manager at TerraSip, puts it.
Sip Telephony using links with URL-Dialing:
The new function allows the user to initiate a telephone call simply by following a link to an internet address. This address can be configured as a link from other applications or internet pages or even registered as a ‘favorite’ in a web browser.
As Mr David points out, this leads to practically unlimited ways of implementing the new function, ranging from integrating it into the address book of an email program, linking it with a CRM system to implementing a telephone link on one’s own website (‘Sip-Free’).
The Sip-Free Button – the first toll free VoIP number:
TerraSip’s ‘Sip-Free’ Button represents a very effective implementation of this new technology. The button provides a way of accessing a VoIP account at no cost to the caller. The customer enters his telephone number in a field on a web page and then clicks the button. This triggers a return call from the provider to the customer. As with a normal freecall number there is no charge to the customer and the provider only has to pay the usual cheap VoIP rate charged by TerraSip – e.g. 1 cent per minute for Germany or 1.4 cents for the whole of the rest of Europe. That represents a significant difference compared to conventional freecall numbers.
Now Freecall is affordable for small businesses as well:
The provider can keep full control of his costs through his prepaid account. It is up to him to decide whether to invest e.g. 10 € or 500 € monthly for this marketing instrument. The costs which accrue are on average 90% less than those of conventional freecall or shared cost numbers. Especially small and medium sized businesses which have so far not been able to afford to maintain close customer contacts in this way can benefit a great deal. Tailor made solutions can also easily be created for inbound and outbound Call Center calls. Expensive special numbers can be dispensed with completely or at least in part. Sip Free is ideal for internationally active companies because it easily crosses national boundaries. It can be used wherever internet access is available and at the same cost as normal VoIP usage.
The Sip free Button: Added value in Yellow Pages:
A ‘Sip Free’ Button can also be added e.g. to electronic Yellow Pages entries, in banner advertisements or in any other text advertising..
Interested users can find the details describing the ‘URL-Dialing’ interface on the TerraSip website. TerraSip is developing further applications using the relevant standard such as an interface for Microsoft Outlook or VolP communication simply using a browser without a VoIP compliant end device.
Information about TerraSip:
TerraSip is a young, internationally oriented company operating throughout the globe. It offers free internet telephony for TerraSip community members using international SIP standards. Calls into other networks are charged at especially reasonable rates, whereby users can take advantage of 56 country-specific special prices, so that the majority can further optimise their telephone costs. Membership of the TerraSip community is free.
TerraSip’s main orientation at present is in the direction of mobile internet telephony: Voice over WLAN or VoWLAN for short. TerraSip recently launched a pilot project in Germany and Austria together with two WiFi network providers with the aim of testing mobile internet telephony in the German speaking region.
TerraSip S.A.,
Avenida Espana 70,
29680 Estepona,
Spain
Tel: +34 636982416
E-Mail: pr@terrasip.com
Web: www.terrasip.com
(3300 characters; may be reproduced free of obligation)
If you have any queries relating to this release please contact the company’s press department at pr@terrasip.com.
Voip Phone – What Are The Different Types Of Voice Over IP Phones?
A Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone system requires the use of VoIP phones and there are several different types from which to choose. There are software based Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)/VoIP phones, USB VoIP phones, and hardware SIP phones. This is the new market for phone service. Providers of both telephone and Internet service have begun to offer their customers the opportunity to experience the new VoIP phone systems. They offer competitive packages and most have plans that give you the choice between limited and unlimited calling in the United States and Canada along with low International rates.
Software based VoIP phones require that you download a program to your computer. You can then use the downloaded soft phone program along with your computers microphone and speakers to make and receive calls. You can also use a headset with microphone if you prefer. This is a great choice if you use your computer for the majority of your communications. The software is easy to install and integrates well with other applications such as Microsoft Outlook.
USB VoIP phones plug into a port on your computer. You can then use them with VoIP software. They look and act like your traditional phone the difference being that the voice signal goes through your broadband service and not the Public Service Telephone Network (PSTN).
Hardware based SIP phones looks like your traditional phone. The difference being that they connect directly to your broadband network. These phones have a mini hub, which enables them to share the network connection with your computer.
You can use your current phone with VoIP services and connect it to the network via an adapter. The adapter uses an Ethernet cable that you use to plug the phone into the adapter and the adapter into the computer. You will find that setting up a VoIP phone is neither difficult nor expensive. It is highly recommended that you have a high-speed Internet connection for the service to work effectively.
IP phones look just like standard phones with a handset, cradle, and buttons and come with the standard connectors that you are accustomed to seeing. They also include an Ethernet connection as well. The purpose for this is to allow the IP phones to connect directly with you computer or router. They include the hardware and software required to handle IP calls. If you prefer to use your computer directly, you can also use VoIP for computer-to-computer calling. Certainly, this is the simplest method but you may experience a lower voice quality than with using an adapter or IP phone.
VoIP Pbx Solutions: Easy to Extend Phone Lines
With ultimate flexibility, mobility and security, the VoIP services are particularly ruling the traditional audio mode of telecommunication. In advanced voice over IP services, users tend to make long distance or international calls at affordable costs with excellent voice quality. As a matter of fact, users can make calls to mobile phones, landlines, or overseas numbers for a lot of less. With loads of features, VoIP is catering to people and entities from different spheres.
Depending upon usage and operation, the VoIP solutions have been found to cut down on monthly telephony charges by up to 50%. As a matter of fact, Internet telephony is based on packet switching protocol; this revolutionary technology allows users to share data, voice and video over a single line. With an IP telephony service in place, one can reduce the cost of calls as well as enhance call productivity. Moreover, users can add additional phone connections and extensions in their systems. Moreover, IP solutions have overcome constraints like locality and mobility that were faced in traditional PSTN services.
For availing benefits of virtual PBX, a basic architecture of PBX server has to be set up. This VoIP PBX system includes one or more SIP phones, VoIP phones as well as VoIP gateways. The benefits attached with using an IP PBX system includes:
1. Reduction of call costs
2. Easy and efficient long distance or international calls
3. Easy addition of phone connections and extensions
4. Add-on advantages such as hot desking and roaming
The IP PBX phone systems are easy to install. They provides hassle-free usage and functionality over the traditional PSTN services. Importantly, with virtual PBX, users can reduce long term operation and maintenance cost. Users must opt for IP PBX providers, who offer feature rich benefits like voice mail, call forwarding, call transferring, 3-way calling, call conference, DID Management as well as customised reporting.
Can Voip Save Hotel Telephone Revenue?
Introduction
As an hotelier, you must be concerned over plummeting hotel telephone service revenue. Thanks to mobile phones, what was once a sweet addition to the bottom line seems to have vanished forever – but what can be done?
The answer may lie in taking advantage of Voice-Over-IP Telephony or VoIP to put telephone revenues back on the bottom line – while at the same time offering your guests better service and lower cost than they can get from their own mobile phone operator.
This article describes VoIP and how it can be used by hoteliers to rebuild guest telephone revenue, reduce the expense of the hotel’s own telephone service costs, enhance your guest service portfolio and add a differentiation factor against your competition.
Guest Perceptions of Hotel Telephone Service
As a small-business traveler with some degree of price sensitivity, I am terrified of even picking up a hotel telephone for fear of the charges. With many European hotels charging €4 to €6 per minute for international calls or even more – little wonder guests seek alternatives.
As a result, rather than using the phones in the bedrooms, guests will use their own mobile
(cellular) phones because of the perception that it will be cheaper and/or more convenient.
While certainly being more convenient, when the guest returns home and sees what their mobile operator charges for connections, roaming charges and long distance service outside their home area – they discover that perhaps the hotel phone may have been a better option after all.
Recently, a European Commission investigation of roaming charge rates for European operators found that mobile operators universally overcharge their clients while roaming.
As an example, they cite a UK subscriber calling the UK from Italy would cost anywhere from €3.50 to €5.81 and receiving a call in Italy from the UK would be €1.75 to €5.50.
In another example, calling the UK from Malta ranged from €3.50 to €7.34 while receiving a call in Malta from the UK ranged from €1.75 to €5.50.
For the hotelier, this news actually represents a wonderful opportunity!
What is VoIP?
In simplest terms, VoIP reduces the cost of international calls by using the public Internet instead of dedicated telephone operator facilities.
The caller places the call on a special desktop telephone connected to the Internet, through a computer with “soft phone†software or through a VoIP-enabled PBX.
The voice call is converted into digital data and travels across the Internet to a VoIP service provider. The service provider converts the call back to analogue and inserts it into the traditional local telephone network nearest the called party.
The called party receives the call on their fixed or mobile telephone just as any other local call.
By using the Internet to carry the call instead of dedicated, proprietary, private telephone transmission facilities – the cost for international calls can be reduced to as little as €.01 or €.02 per minute.
To receive a call, the caller would dial a local number provided by the VoIP service provider.
Through the VoIP service provider, the call would be routed back through the Internet to either your hotel’s PBX or operator where it may be transferred to a guest room or member of staff.
Because VoIP relies on the Internet as the carrier – call quality can be variable – dependent mostly on the VoIP service provider and the speed and quality of the caller’s Internet connection.
With most hotels now having high-quality, high-bandwidth Internet connections a high quality of service can generally be offered.
Outbound VoIP Services
From the guest or staff perspective, using VoIP service at your property could be as easy as making any other call. For example, if you normally need to dial “8″ to access an international line, you could simply offer guests the option of dialing “7″ instead to try the VoIP service.
Guests can be invited to try the VoIP service and if they aren’t satisfied they may use the traditional system. (Promotion of the service with tent-cards in the room is very helpful.)
The most striking feature of VoIP service is the low cost of International calls – calls to many international destinations can be had for as little as €.01 or slightly more per minute. Some of these savings can be passed on to the guest while at the same time increasing your own profit margin.
In a very conservative example, if you assume your ‘cost’ for a guest call over traditional service to be €1 per minute and you charge the guest €5 per minute (500% markup) – if you put the same call over VoIP you could charge the guest just €.50 per minute (10 times less) while at the same time earning a markup of 5,000% (ten times more).
In addition to reducing your monthly telephone service bills dramatically for guest calls, the same services may be used for all staff calls as well – making international telemarketing campaigns and international reservations support calls practical and affordable.
Warning: Your current telephone service provider will not be delighted with your decision to try VoIP unless they themselves offer it as an option.
Inbound VoIP Services
Most VoIP service providers also offer inbound telephone numbers in major cities world-wide.
Calls placed to these numbers can be routed through VoIP and the Internet directly to your hotel PBX or operator.
This option can dramatically increase your reservations by giving potential customers a local number to call – which is easier for them than dialing an international call and takes away the fear of placing an expensive international call.
As an extra benefit, guests can forward their home, office and/or mobile phones to these local numbers – and as long as the caller knows the guest’s name or room number, your PBX or operator can forward through the call right to the guest’s room. For the caller it is completely transparent and cost-free while for the guest pays highly discounted VoIP rates to receive the call.
As an additional guest service, you may rent out mobile phones and have inbound VoIP calls directed right to the guest wherever they are, or may rent the guest a Wi-Fi mobile phone allowing them to take the calls anywhere your Wi-Fi service works.
Free Telephone Service?
A new trend in hospitality is giving guests free limited or unlimited international calls.
With traditional telephone service costs, this option wouldn’t be possible – but with VoIP, it becomes both practical and affordable. It gives you a new tool to attract guests and differentiate your property from your competitors.
With many VoIP systems, you can offer guests automatic credits, and when they consume their allocation, they can go to reception and buy additional credit. You may also offer special VoIP packages for groups or conferences.
VoIP over Wi-Fi Wireless
If your property has a Wi-Fi wireless system for guests, you may offer guests the option of renting the new breed of Wi-Fi VoIP telephones. These look and work much like a normal mobile phone anywhere in your property where the Wi-Fi service is available.
Hotels are beginning to use VoIP over wireless as an alternative to traditional DECT telephone systems, pagers and regular mobile phones for hotel staff.
Unlike traditional mobile phones, all calls within the property are absolutely free and international incoming and outgoing calls are charged at VoIP prices.
Implementing VoIP Service
For the hotelier, there are many ways to implement VoIP service – depending on which options you wish to implement and whether the service will be used for guests and/or staff.
The simplest and least expensive way to start offering VoIP service to guests is to use wireless VoIP handsets connected directly with a VoIP service provider. Handsets range upwards from €75 depending on manufacturer, model and features.
Through such a system, you would set up one account with the VoIP service provider for each mobile device – giving you itemized individual billing available the moment the phone is returned from rental.
If you have wired broadband connections to rooms and offices, you may also purchase inexpensive desktop telephone sets that connect directly to the network.
Desktop telephones look and work exactly like a normal desktop telephone set – ranging upwards of €50.
To implement VoIP service through your existing PBX is a little more complicated and may need some assistance from whoever currently supports your PBX.
The options including installing a VoIP line card that supports the protocol offered by your VoIP service provider (H.323, SIP, IAX or IAX-2).
Another alternative is to use an external device that provides appears and works like normal analogue telephone trunks to the PBX.
The last and most flexible option is to install an inexpensive VoIP PBX in conjunction with your traditional PBX. This allows you to offer guests a remarkable variety of new telephony services – for virtually no cost at all. Just a few examples include:
• Automated wake-up call (with or without verification).
• Voicemail – with a tremendous variety of features including the ability to have voicemail forwarded to an email address.
• Call forwarding – allowing the guest to have calls routed to their mobile phones at VoIP rates.
Guests can also take advantage of outbound calling features working in conjunction with their mobile phones. As an example, the guest could be walking around the city, call the VoIP PBX and receive a dial-tone from which they could call anywhere in the world at VoIP rates. For them, it costs almost nothing more than making a regular local call while the hotel receives the regular VoIP markup.
Always remember the additional revenue opportunities from renting out the wireless VoIP handsets and mobile phones to help guests take advantage of the new services.
Avoiding Pitfalls and Problems
In my experience, the most critical question is in the selection of the VoIP service provider.
Depending which country you are in, and which countries your guests are most likely to call – you should select your VoIP service provider based on the balance between cost and quality of service for the most important called countries.
In some cases you may wish to use more than one service provider – such as if you need incoming numbers in specific countries or cities, due to cost of servicing certain countries, or due to the quality of service for specific countries.
If you operate your own VoIP PBX, this is relatively easy. You can set up dialing plans that select the most appropriate provider automatically. If you do not operate your own VoIP PBX, you may wish to work through an intermediary service provider who does offer this service.
Ready to Try VoIP?
I hope that this article has provided you with enough information to begin thinking about implementation of VoIP at your property. While not a simple issue that can be covered fully in these few pages, I do invite you to contact me for further information at the address below. Best of luck in your VoIP projects!
A New Improved Approach to Communicate Better
From ages immemorial we have been using different modes of communication for interacting with each other. From traditional PSTN to VoIP telephony at present the method of communication has changed drastically and definitely for the better. Keeping in mind that our needs have been constantly evolving over the years, VoIP call transmission services have come as a breather for many.
Let us take into consideration the difference between public switch telephony network and VoIP services to understand which one would be in a better state to fulfill your requirements.
PSTN services are substantially expensive as compared to voice over IP, more so the long distance and international calls. VoIP calls offer a much cheaper, almost 50% less, alternative to PSTN. On the other hand, the traditional telephony presents premium quality services to its users. Initially IP telephony could not stand up to the standard set up by PSTN. However after a number of improvements in the technology, it now stands at par with the older mode of communication.
Voice over IP transmission services offer an efficient way of networking via internet which eventually leads to an increase in overall productivity. VoIP integrates the various branches of an organization to provide seamless connectivity between them. PSTN on the other hand can though conjoin different branches; the call tariff is very high especially if branches are in different countries. VoIP on the other hand mostly offers this service for free.
VoIP also helps in unifying communication. There are various colleges and even business houses that use VoIP services like Skype for internal communication. The various features that come along with voice over IP services can not be ignored. Features like call waiting, call forwarding, follow me etc are a part of the package offered by some providers at no extra cost. Whereas traditional telephony either does not provide these services or charge a huge fee for them.
Mobility is another major benefit that comes along with voice over IP services. It allows for calls to be made and received from across the globe on your local number provided by the VoIP service provider. Now you can go for your business trips and take your business with you.
VoIP has thus become the preferred option for most in the corporate and residential sectors.
Broadband Phones for Dummies
What is a broadband phone? How does a broadband phone work? Where do I find broadband phone service? How much can I expected to pay for a broadband phone and broadband phone service? These are the questions I have asked and set out to answer in this article.
How does a broadband phone work? When a phone call is placed the call is routed by a private branch exchange (PBX) from a company like AT&T, SBC, or Sprint. The difference is that the data from the phone call, which is the voice data from you speaking, is transferred back and forth through the internet using a technology called voice over IP (VoIP). A traditional phone transfers data over phone lines.
Broadband Phone Service Providers
Lingo – $19.99
Net2Phone – $14.99
SpeakEasy – $83.90
Voice Eclipse – $12.95
Voice Pulse – $14.99
Vonage – $14.99
ZingoTel – $14.95
Jason D. Barrett is currently focused on writing articles for InfoBriefs.com (Brief reports on several topics), ChildInsure.com (Child Insurance), and ScoutTechnology.com.
