For more than a decade, Freeje and other providers offering VoIP services have been slowly growing their market share for businesses needing telecommunication services.
Landlines have been around for a while, but as surely as VoIP telecoms are becoming a formidable force in the industry, they’re losing market share.
If you’ve been on the fence on whether to stay with the old or try it out with the new, then you should keep reading. After discussing both, we’ll help you choose what will work best for you.
Landlines
This piece of tech has been a staple in households and businesses for generations. Despite being invented centuries ago, not much has changed about how it works and how it functions.
It sends voice data using copper wires which the other end receives as audio. And the same thing happens from their end. These wires make everything go smoothly, much more so because the infrastructure has been established and maintained for a long time.
Advantages
- High reliability: You can expect top-notch call quality all the time. This can be very important to enterprises because you want to be easily reachable to people.
- Consistency: Calls won’t suddenly drop, and the call quality won’t change. It may not be achievable if your connection is unreliable.
Disadvantages
- Limited reach. Of course, unless you’re willing to spend a lot on long-distance calls.
- Considered low-tech. The world is evolving. So communication investments in the future would focus more on the modernized versions of their counterparts.
- Spam calls. It’s hard to get rid of a landline or the number associated with it. So once telemarketers get a hold of your number, it will be pretty hard to get rid of them.
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)
Its biggest difference compared to landline is how calls are made possible. Instead of copper wires, VoIP works through the internet. It uses both software and hardware to translate your voice to become data and send it to the other user.
You can use:
- A VoIP adapter. This allows you to use your regular landline to call.
- A VoIP phone. This looks just like a regular phone, but it connects to a computer network instead of copper wires.
- A computer or phone. Here, you’ll use software to be able to get started.
Advantages
- Affordable. This is the primary reason a lot of enterprises are trying it out. In fact, some were able to cut their business phone bill by 80 percent just through VoIP.
- Easy to set up. You don’t need to have some special expertise just to get started. The user interface is normally very intuitive, so you can just press buttons and explore for yourself.
- Flexible. Add lines whenever you need them, and cut them just as easily. So when you grow, you can utilize new labor right away.
- Highly mobile. You’re not stuck in any one location. As long as there is an internet connection, it will work.
Disadvantages
- Internet reliant. Therefore, its quality and stability will determine call quality.
- Affected by outages. The internet needs electricity, so your lines would be down if there’s no power. Fortunately, this can be solved by a BDR plan.
What should you consider before you choose?
Budgetary concerns
If you already have a landline, switching doesn’t sound so attractive. The status quo always looks cheaper on paper until something needs repairing.
With lots of hardware, something is eventually going to break down even with regular maintenance. What a lot of companies do is set aside a contingency fund to account for this type of spending.
But even if you have the money to pay for repairs, you should still consider the impact of having your phone lines down to your business.
Scalability
Where do you see your business in five years? Any successful entrepreneur today didn’t see their business ventures ever stagnating.
You’ll need a telecom solution that will grow with you. It doesn’t make sense to pay for so many add-ons that you don’t need yet. But at the same time, you want those available when you do.
VoIP offers flexible solutions so it’s always budget-friendly, whether you’re running a startup or a billion-dollar industry. The same couldn’t be said of landlines because once you buy a system, you’re stuck with it. Upgrades take a long time to materialize.
Features availability
Landlines are pretty basic. But as with anything that works using the internet, VoIP gives you more than the ability to call people.
Through its interface, you can access a lot of features that let you personalize the system based on specific needs like:
- Auto-attendants
- Voicemail to text or email
- Call menu
- Automatic call forwarding
If you’re going to ask us, the only way is forward. Either that or competitors will outpace you. You can begin the transition with low-cost solutions such as those offered by Freeje. Download their app from Google Playstore, and experience the difference for yourself.