Hosted telephony is ideal for the modern business, enabling establishments to provide the digital experience users and customers have come to expect.

Every industry has a lot to gain by making the switch to hosted telephony right now from medical practices to local governments and agencies to car dealerships and schools. In this blog we will consider why moving from a traditional phone system to an Internet-based hosted PBX system will deliver what today’s discerning businesses have come to expect.

What is Hosted Telephony?

A hosted telephone service (using VoIP) revolutionises business communications. It converts voice into data, allowing business calls to be sent and received via an internet connection rather than traditional PSTN telephone and ISDN lines.

It is a cloud-based telephony service that can reside across multiple diversely located data centres. The service can be run within Virtual Machine environments and, therefore, not necessarily in any one place. Platforms can be diversely located across multiple locations to provide location diversity as well as system diversity. The system can be mirrored to other data centres, adding further layers of security and availability.

In simple terms a Hosted PBX (private branch exchange) is the same as a normal PBX but it sits in a data centre and can be replicated in other data centres providing enhanced availability should a problem arise at the first data centre. Rather than having a PBX installed onto a wall, or in a comms cabinet, within your building and ISDN or Standard Telephone lines connected to it, with a Hosted PBX the lines to the outside world (using SIP technology) are connected to the PBX by the main telephone companies, who are also in the data centre.

The customer has IP Handsets installed at their offices and these handsets talk to the Hosted PBX in the data centre via the customer’s internet connection (therefore there is the need for a good internet connection). The customer makes and receives calls in the normal way but it’s the PBX in the data centre that’s doing all the work making sure the calls connect from the handset to the person that has been dialled. All this happens instantly and the user experience is no different to a traditional PBX.

The advantages of a hosted PBX are significant because the PBX is in a Secure Data Centre and not likely exposed to the typical problems customers experience such as power cuts or flood / weather damage, either damaging the PBX or making the building non-functional i.e. no electricity = no PBX.

The business continuity advantages of Hosted PBX are significant. These advantages are greatly enhanced when the Hosted Telephony Company also has a Hosted Mobile telephony solution built into the platform. The Business Continuity benefits of a true Unified Communications solution allowing full integration of the user’s desk phones and mobiles, plus full homeworking capability, in today’s world is extremely important.

Benefits of Hosted Telephony for business

Hosted telephony offers several key benefits for businesses including:

Cost savings: VoIP offers both short-term and long-term savings, providing you with a more cost-effective communications medium. From the moment you start using your new system, you’ll reduce spending. You won’t have the ongoing costs of PSTN or ISDN lines

Affordable call costs: Hosted telephony cut the costs of local, national and international calls.

Scalability: you can develop and expand your new system in line with your business objectives. As your business grows, you can increase the number of users in line with your business growth. Whereas with a traditional PBX you have to buy for your future expected growth before it happens.

Interoperability: devices and applications connect and communicate with each other enabling you to deploy best-of-breed solutions with seamless voice, video and data integration.

Local / National and Non-Geographic numbers providing you with a local presence in parts of the country where you may want to be noticed or giving that National coverage feeling with non-Geographic numbers: Connections to multiple points, allowing you to have local phone numbers anywhere which is particularly important for independent restaurants and hotels.

Make the change now

Over the coming years the UK’s telecoms networks are going to change massively, with BT shutting down its traditional phone lines in favour of internet-based systems.

BT will not provide ISDN and PSTN services in the UK past December 2025, pushing for all its business customers to make the move to VoIP and SIP solutions. After the BT switch off, all PSTN and ISDN services will cease to operate and there will be no maintenance available on any of these types of circuits. BT has already stopped the sale if ISDN service and will do the same for PSTN telephone lines well before the final PSTN switch off date meaning you can’t upgrade any existing services using traditional phone lines.

This switch off will affect ALL businesses from all sectors across the UK, so it makes sense to get ahead of the rush and switch over to an Internet-based solution now.

As part of this transition from legacy systems to an Internet service, upgrading your current legacy hardware, including PBX’s, may also be something to consider. Many older phone systems in businesses today will need to be either replaced, upgraded or have additional components added to them to allow them to continue working over new IP Telephony lines (SIP Trunks).

Guidance from the Xcomm experts

The Xcomm team are experts in the field, providing Hosted Telephony services for many high profile customers. We have a whole range of solutions to meet the needs of all businesses. So why not take advantage of the ultimate in telecommunications solutions and embrace this change before the final countdown begins.

Contact Xcomm to find out more about hosted telephony for business on 03333 447 092 or email us at sales@xcomm.co.uk

Useful Glossary

ISDN – Integrated Service Digital Network, is the first iteration of high-speed internet. The service enables businesses to send data, such as voice calls or images, through their phone lines using the internet.

PBX – Private Branch Exchange (Telephone system)

PSTN – Public Switched Telephone Network is the classic analogue telephone system – the system that enables landline connectivity. It generally consists of copper telephone lines, fibre optic cables, microwave transmission links, satellites, undersea telephone cables and mobile networks.

SIP – Session Initiation Protocol is a method of transmitting VoIP calls

VoIP – Voice over Internet Protocol is a method of data transmission allowing voice communications to be sent over the internet.

Check out our sister company and other brand LineBroker

Check out X.COMM’s most popular website pages

Services and Solutions
About
SSL Clientless VPN
Swivel Secure
Firewalls
Unified Communications
SIP Trunks
Virtual servers and cloud storage
Vendors
Become a partner