Lower costs

Once VoIP has gained traction, probably because Telcos and Internet providers have seen an opportunity and also a threat to their “normal” business models, VoIP has also caused calls cost to drop quite dramatically, allowing consumers to make at first international calls that cost a mere one or two cents per minute, and more recently to pay a flat fee for unlimited calls nationally – and the trend seems to continue.

The secret is in the fact that VoIP has relied on very popular global-reaching networks, whilst consuming very little bandwidth. Once we could make calls using free software (like Skype), and once we could get connected at no other cost than our monthly Internet bill, Telco’s saw what a big threat VoIP can be, but they also noticed the big opportunity to provide more effective services at much lower costs. And, as we all know, lower costs increase customer retainability and more chances to push more products.

A major way VoIP can lower the overall telecommunications cost is in the fact that most VoIP solutions on the market today make use of adjacent technologies to enhance the return on investment. Adding a layer of text chat and another one of Video on top of the basic voice call makes a VoIP solution much more enticing because it completes better the communication spectrum. Rather than having to pay for a VoIP platform, a chat platform and a video conference platform, an all-in-one solution is more appealing and – frankly – a no brainer in the decision-making process.

Another major advantage of VoIP comes from the fact that the consumer is no longer at the mercy of a single provider that owns the wired infrastructure used to deliver the service. In the past, if you were a customer of Telco X, you would need a separate physical line to get a connection with another one. Costly and difficult to obtain – hence reserved to the very large corporations.

Today, with VoIP, a small organisation of under 5 people can easily decide to pay $10 a month to three or four providers – even from different countries – and make calls based on smart routing rules, to make sure every call cost is the lowest possible.

There are many examples of companies who – before opening a branch in another country – secure some VoIP lines and attach them to their own VoIP PABX system, hire some local resources and allow them to operate remotely connected, before making the commitment to rent an office.

NOTEWORTHY: By using an international interconnected network of providers, VoIP allows us to choose the lowest cost possible and maximise our investment in technology.