Five VoIP Myths -- Busted!

According to Nextiva, there are "many misconceptions about VoIP phone services that big, traditional phone companies want small businesses to believe in order to keep them as land line customers." As a public service Nextiva is happy to bust the myths for you, with that said, here are the five VoIP myths:

Minimal cost savings. With VoIP, the truth is just the opposite. Most companies can actually easily save at least 50 percent over traditional phone service. In actuality, businesses tend to greatly underestimate the amount of money they can save by switching to VoIP -- which can be as much as 80 percent.

Unacceptable or inferior call quality. Of all of the misconceptions out there about VoIP services, call quality is one of the most ironic and interesting, since the very nature of VoIP technology lends itself to greater call clarity. This is because the analog voice signal is converted to digital format to compress and translate over the Internet, which is designed to eliminate data interference. The prioritization of voice traffic over other data ensures the highest call quality available.

VoIP phone services are for techies and larger businesses. It is true that VoIP was created by forward-thinking professionals from the technology sector, but the reality is that VoIP phone services are even more suited for small businesses of all kinds, particularly since smaller companies tend to rely upon more mobility for their agents, representatives and employees. VoIP phone operations offer unmatched flexibility and scalability that has never been available from land line services.

Set-up and management is costly and difficult. The truth is that there isn’t a phone system available that is easier to set up and manage than VoIP – whether it is a basic, hosted or integrated phone service. None of the VoIP plans require any hardware on site for a technical person or customer to manage.

New technology is more troublesome. As it is with most innovation, businesses struggle with the fear of change, before realizing that the new methods will actually free them from older, more costly services. Once the simplicity of VoIP is realized, it will actually be more appealing on every level, than any traditional phone service could ever be.