Phone systems technology (VoIP Vs PBX/PRI)

There are two basic types of phone systems to choose form, PBX/PRI (traditional phone system) or Hosted VoIP(aka VoIP). VoIP has changed drastically, becoming more reliable with higher voice quality. While PBX has struggled to adapt and compete with VoIP's features. Sadly, neither VoIP or PBX offer the perfect solution. They each have their pro's and con's.

Old PBX/PRI

While a PBX/PRI solution gives your company the most reliability and highest voice quality, the systems are extremely expensive to buy, hard to maintain, lack mobility features, and usually hard to adjust or change the settings on. With the PRI you are limited to the number of lines you purchase or number of POT lines you have. Having multiple locations is difficult to manage.

Pro's

  • High voice quality
  • Allows for a large number of local extensions while only paying for a small number of external lines

 

 

Con's

  • Expensive equipment
  • High monthly cost
  • Expensive to maintain and support
  • Lacks features

Hosted VoIP

There is no question that VoIP is the future of Telecommunications. Because the features VoIP offers, makes it the go to system. However, it's not perfect. VoIP has always suffered from quality and reliability and sadly, still does. No matter how sophisticated the system in the cloud is or how fast your internet connection, you're still affected by the number of users on your network and what their internet usage looks like. Hosted VoIP assumes that the internet connection is reliable, and that is simply not true.

Pro's

  • Very low upfront cost
  • No maintenance and support fees
  • Sophisticated systems hosted in the cloud
  • A huge number of features existing and new features developed on a regular basis
  • Changes and edits are web based and can be edited from anywhere
  • Mobility

Con's

  • Voice quality is not always guaranteed
  • Relies on the internet connection
  • Network users' internet activity affects voice quality
  • Internal extensions have to go out to the internet to call each other

 

Hybrid VoIP Solution

A few companies have figured out a way to merge the two phone system types to combine their advantages and eliminate the disadvantages. Unfortunately, most hybrid solutions are offered by old PBX companies still stuck on the old platform. We Partner with Star2Star because they incorporate Hybrid VoIP in a way that works the best. Visit our Star2Star page to read more about why Star2Star is our choice of a hybrid solution. S2S has created their solution based on the benefits of VoIP, allowing for the system to inherit all the features of VoIP systems, while utilizing the positives a PBX system offers. For our Business Phone Service solution, we use Star2Star.

Visit our Star2Star page for more information on what this technology has to offer.

Contact Us today to get your questions answered or to obtain a quote for a Business Phone system.