One of the first questions businesses ask about moving to a cloud phone system is a fair one. If my phones run over the internet, will my broadband cope, and will calls still sound good? The short answer is that most business broadband handles VoIP calls comfortably. The longer answer is worth understanding so you can be confident before you move.
VoIP uses less than people expect
A phone call is a small amount of data compared with things like video streaming or big downloads. Each call uses only a modest slice of your connection. Even a busy small office running several calls at once is using far less bandwidth than a single video meeting. If your internet already handles day-to-day work without grinding to a halt, it will almost certainly handle your phones.
Consistency matters more than raw speed
When it comes to call quality, a steady connection beats a headline speed number. Three things affect how a call sounds:
- Latency is the delay between speaking and being heard. Lower is better.
- Jitter is how much that delay varies from moment to moment. You want it steady.
- Packet loss is small bits of the call going missing, which sounds like words dropping out.
A fast connection that is unreliable can give worse calls than a slower connection that is rock solid. So reliability is the thing to protect.
Simple ways to keep calls clear
You do not need to be technical to get good results. A few sensible steps go a long way:
- Use a wired connection for desk phones where you can, rather than relying only on WiFi.
- Make sure your WiFi is strong in the areas where people take calls on the app.
- If lots of heavy internet use and calls happen at the same time, a business-grade router can be set to give voice calls priority so they stay clear.
- Keep your router firmware up to date and reboot it now and then.
What if the internet goes down?
This is a sensible thing to plan for. Because a cloud phone system is not tied to a physical line in your building, calls can be set to divert automatically to a mobile if your internet drops. So even in the rare event of an outage, customers still get through. You can also answer the business line from the app on a mobile using mobile data, which means the office being offline does not have to mean the phones are.
Not sure if your connection is up to it?
The easiest way to know is to check. Virtual Voice Office can talk through your setup and what your broadband is doing before you commit to anything. We set the whole system up for you, and we are here in the North East if you want a straight answer from real people rather than a call centre.
0191 543 3488 | sales@virtualvoice.uk | virtualvoice.uk
