How Much Does a VoIP Phone System Cost?
Price levels for internet calling vary widely from one VoIP provider to another. VoIP calls may be free or they may come with a charge. In the VoIP industry, the standard practice is to pay a monthly or annual fee for all of your lines.
To give you an idea about VoIP and traditional phone system costs we compared their initial and monthly costs, device costs, and international calling costs.
VoIP
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Traditional Phone System
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Initial costs: $0-$19.99 per line
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Installation fee: $50-$99.99
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Monthly costs: $17-$29 per line
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Deposit: $50-$400 per line
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Device costs: Free (for some plans)
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Maintenance monthly fee: $80+
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International calls: Free to 40+ countries. $0.01+ per minute to other
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International calls: $1.00+ per minute
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How Much You Can Save Using VoIP?
Businesses report huge cost savings when switching to cloud PBX – 90% saved on international call bills, 40% on local phone bills, and 75% on operational costs, equating to $1,200 of savings for each phone line they have.
![VoIP cost and savings](https://www.net2phone.com/hs-fs/hubfs/VoIP%20cost%20and%20savings.webp?width=776&height=474&name=VoIP%20cost%20and%20savings.webp)
VoIP Phone System Equipment and Hardware
One of the main advantages of employing a VoIP solution is there’s not a lot of equipment required to facilitate it. There are however one or two pieces of hardware which are essential/nice to have.
Essential Equipment and Hardware
A device from which to run the VoIP platform and initiate calls is essential to a functioning VoIP system. With many communications providers this can be a:
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desktop phone
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computer, (laptop or desktop)
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mobile device (smartphone, or tablet).
Any connected device which is compatible with your service provider can be used to make calls. If you are calling from a busy office or contact center, you will want either a headset or a handset to make calls.
Customer privacy is important, so this will be essential for making customer-facing calls.
You will also need an internet connection. If using a mobile device, this can either be a mobile internet protocol such as 5G or any WiFi you might have access to. In an office setting, you will require a commercial internet package and ample ethernet ports for the device you have installed.
Optional Equipment
You may decide you prefer a physical device from which to make calls, in which case you will need a VoIP hard phone. This type of device looks very much like a traditional landline telephone but will often carry VoIP specific features such as call transfer, multiparty calling, and support for multiple VoIP accounts.
Selecting the Right VoIP Phone System for Your Business Needs
Which is the best VoIP provider? The answer will depend on your needs, budget, and circumstances.
Here are some general tips for selecting the best business voice over IP providers:
- Identify the communications features that you need most.
- Take future expansion or business growth into account.
- Establish the size of your budget.
- Make a comparative assessment of voice-over internet providers, and what they have to offer.
- Look for testimonials, reviews, and customer referrals for the providers on your shortlist.
Don’t forget to factor in what kind of technical support they have available.
For Sole Proprietors And Micro-scale Enterprises
At the single owner or micro start-up stage, incoming calls are vital – so a customizable auto attendant phone system is a must. Call routing to your designated best numbers, or to your best qualified employees are the key features to look for. Custom messages for promotion and Music On Hold can help boost your image.
For Small Offices
For diverse small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) VoIP providers should offer small business phone system solutions with a variety of VoIP options together with calling features and levels of integration with web and mobile applications or office software.
For Large-scale Enterprises
Companies with large workforces and numerous phone lines should expect to see dramatic savings from VoIP – from 30 to as much as 90%. Shop around for a balance offering the best feature set and the highest savings.
For Dedicated Call Centers
If you operate a call center, many business VoIP providers offer dedicated products and packages to address your need for huge numbers of incoming and outgoing calls, reduced waiting times, comprehensive feature sets, and quality assurance.
Look for call recording facilities with analytics and reporting tools, to enhance your call monitoring and customer experience refinements. Manage customer calls and interactions directly with an intelligent cloud contact center.
For All Users…
The ideal VoIP solution should be fully capable of meeting all the operational and business needs you specify, with options to reconfigure or customize your subscriptions in response to changing conditions. Read our detailed guide 33 Questions to Ask When Choosing a Communication System to help you make your decision to find the right provider for your business.
Unified Communications - the Future of VoIP
![UCaaS - the future of VoIP](https://www.net2phone.com/hs-fs/hubfs/What-is-UCaaS.webp?width=1366&height=768&name=What-is-UCaaS.webp)
This all brings us to the modern business communication solutions of today, unified communications, the future of VoIP. Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) brings multiple aspects of enterprise communications including voice, video, messaging, and voicemail, onto a single platform, accessible via the cloud.
With all-in-one UCaaS platforms, organizations don’t need to set up several different tools (for example a video conferencing solution, a business phone system, and a messaging platform). These tools are built into one single solution and are integrated to communicate with each other. Data is all stored on one interface rather than multiple places.
Tools like net2phone’s Unite UCaaS platform allow users to connect with calls, messaging, video, fax and more in one streamlined, unified communication solution.
UCaaS solutions offer businesses many benefits, including:
- Reduction of monthly subscription costs by not having multiple vendors for communication platforms
- Further reduced costs on installation and maintenance with software and updates deployed via the cloud.
- The ability to have a mobile workforce with technology that allows employees to connect from anywhere across the globe.
- Scalability to easily add users as businesses grow.
- Versatility to connect with prospects and customers through their channel of choice.
Even more data security and privacy.
Don’t get us wrong. While unified communications are the way of the future, this doesn’t mean that VoIP is dead. It has merely evolved with more advanced technology and innovations that allow businesses to grow, thrive, and keep up with changing customer needs and expectations. These modern solutions will surely pave the way for even more advanced business communication technology in the future, and we’re excited to be along for the ride.
To learn more, read our definitive guide to unified communications.
From Analog to Digital - The History of VoIP
When it comes to the origins of VoIP, we can start with the introduction of analog communication in the 1930s. In analog communication systems, a continuous signal is carried through a time-based variable, like a voltage or pressure, to transmit voice, data, image, signal, or video information.
An example of analog communication is traditional, landline telephone systems. In this type of communication, sound waves are generated by a speaker’s voice and then transmitted into electrical signals that travel along a physical wire and are converted to sound waves that the listener can hear.
Moving forward, digital communication originated with the invention of computers in the 1950s, when communications could be transmitted, processed, and stored through digital signals. With digital systems, information is transmitted via digital signals that are discrete, either on or off, rather than continuous, and data is transmitted through point-to-multipoint or point-to-point channels, opening up new possibilities. Digital communication has many benefits over traditional, analog communication, including:
- Increased transmission range
- Greater sound quality
- Reduced chance of errors
- The ability to deliver more information
- Greater portability and flexibility
- Better security and encryption
This brings us to the introduction of VoIP in the mid-1990s, which first allowed users to make phone calls using their computers with an internet connection rather than a physical landline. This allowed for much cheaper long distance and international calls for businesses. Let’s dive deeper into what VoIP stands for and what it means.