What is the future of VoIP?

Small businesses have been behind the VoIP revolution for the last five years, driving change in the industry and helping providers to hone their services. At Nimvelo, we’ve learned a great deal by listening to our customers to find out what their pain points are. That helps us to continue to provide value-for-money services whilst continuing to innovate and grow.

Now that VoIP is proven and established, its functionality will certainly broaden. What can we expect in the future?

Integrations

VoIP is really convenient for business users, because you can make and receive calls on practically any device. In the coming years, we’ll undoubtedly see deeper integration with phones, tablets and PCs – a trend that is already prevalent in cloud computing.

Nimvelo has its own click-to-call functionality, and we can even bring up the associated customer details on your laptop when the phone rings. These kinds of integrations will drive greater VoIP adoption and make the technology mesh with existing hardware and software.

Audio quality

If you make a call between two VoIP numbers, you might notice that the quality is much higher than it could be over a traditional telephone line. This ‘HD’ audio is a result of better codecs and an increased bandwidth when compared to the old-fashioned exchange.

As more people use VoIP, you’ll start to notice that callers are clearer, crisper and easier to understand. Often, VoIP to VoIP calls are as clear as they’d be if you were sitting in the same room.

Short messaging

Now that voice calling is so cheap, you’d think that the humble text message would have died a short, sharp death. But texting is as big as it ever was. While we may not be using SMS messages quite so much, we’re diversifying and using different types of messaging services over our phone data connections.

VoIP allows us to leave free voicemails when texting isn’t convenient, and you can also send texts from your computer, rather than your phone, using a VoIP number. It’s a great way to quickly tap out messages without the hassle of using a touch screen.

Mobile VoIP

The biggest revolution for VoIP was the advent of 4G. The UK was notoriously slow to roll out the technology, but most of us can now access a 4G network in local cities or built-up areas. These fast mobile connections have made mobile VoIP a reality; we can now place VoIP calls over a cellular data network, not just over WiFi.

4G isn’t the end of the story for mobile operators. The next generation, 5G, is expected to roll out in 2020 – just five years from now. Networks are already preparing their masts to handle connections of up to 1Gbps.

Staying ahead

Don’t get left behind. Make sure your business switches to VoIP and enjoys all of the added benefits an internet phone service can provide. If you’d like some more information before you make the leap, don’t hesitate to contact us for a chat about what you might need.