The New Face of Phone Services

By Jon Kenton

For many years, the networks that were used to transmit our telephone conversations were based on the same basic technology: switched circuits. Although these networks evolved many times, the core concepts remained similar. Fundamentally, every time you called somebody, it was just like the proverbial tin-can-and-string experiment (i.e., a dedicated fixed path was created just for your call and then torn down when you hung up). Just picture the telephone operator from some old movie with her patch panel of cords as she connected callers. In essence, these were the first telephone switches.

The last ten years have seen a huge revolution as the old voice circuits gave way to the data network based on packet technologies. This revolution, brought about by the explosive growth of the Internet, made it apparent to the telecommunications giants that there would be a major shift of the infrastructure toward high-speed packet technologies. As well as providing the networks to accommodate our growing data needs, many began adapting voice traffic to the Internet. This new technology of the “packet revolution” has been called many things: Voice over Packet, Voice on the Net, Internet Telephony or Voice over IP (Internet Protocol), or just plain VoIP. Although the telecom giants ruled the old circuit-based world, the advent of VoIP spawned numerous new companies that would take advantage of this new technology.

One of the first new companies to emerge was Skype (skype.com). Back in 2003, Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis founded Skype as an online communication tool that anybody could use to talk to anyone anywhere in the world with just one computer and Internet connection. Now, as well as the ability to make calls using a simple headset, there are special “Skype phones” and also the capability to do video calls using webcams. Acquired by eBay in October 2005, Skype is now responsible for 8 percent of global international calling minutes, and its users made over 3 billion minutes of calls in the third quarter of 2009.

When it comes to anything Internet related, one can be certain that Google will be there somewhere. So it is with telephone services—and lo, in March of last year, Google launched Google Voice. Although it does employ the Internet to provide telephone services, it is not specifically a VoIP service. Google Voice provides an independent (and free) set of extended features that can be utilized by the user across whichever carriers they choose. Here are few examples of features provided by Google Voice (google.com/voice):

• One number: a single phone number that rings all your phones

• Free SMS: send, receive, and store text messages online

• Record calls: record phone calls and store them online

• Conference calls: join several people into a single call

• Google voice mail: voice mail that works like e-mail

• Voice mail transcription: read what your voice mail says

• Custom greetings: vary voice mail greetings by caller

• Notifications: read voice mail messages via email or SMS

The services provided by Skype and Google are very cool, but if you are a business that relies on phone communications (and which of them doesn’t?), a local company that specializes in business communications is probably more appropriate. Yes, the conventional companies such as Qwest or AT&T do now offer VoIP services; however, there are local specialists who really understand how to get the best from this new technology and have advanced services that can improve your efficiency and save you significant money.

One such company—TelEvolve LLC (televolve.com)—is locally owned and operated and specializes in bringing VoIP-based telephone services to small and medium businesses as well as call centers. Owned and staffed by “real people” rather than remote call centers with faceless operators, TelEvolve’s highly experienced network engineers truly enjoy providing advanced phone services at a fraction of the cost of their much larger competitors. Their success is based on direct customer interaction. They offer all-inclusive pricing, and business users won’t get one of those surprise bills every time they make those frequently necessary changes as users are added or moved about the phone system.

We all used to be happy with our tin cans and string and would pay big bucks for the privilege. With a VoIP phone service (and the right provider), one can get a plethora of great and highly useful features and improve one’s bottom line. As TelEvolve would say, it’s “Advanced Phones Services Simplified.”