It surprises the individuals when one talks about free calling, but it is a reality now, because there is the facility of VoIP that makes it possible for people to talk with others free of cost. In fact, the VoIP is an advanved technology that has completely changed the lives of people all over the world by bringing free communication option to the individuals. This technology allows you to make free phone calls, besides accessing the music, emails, games and images.

With the VoIP, one need not have to worry about interrupted phone calls. This service allows the people to see the picture of the caller. Not only this, one can also send messages and emails, while talking to his or her near and dear ones. This service is really beneficial for people who want to make long distance phone calls. So, if you are having relatives or friends in other countries and want to engage in free calling, go for this service and make free calls.

Another interesting thing about VoIP is that it can be used to transfer the content along with voice signals. With the help of this technology, the users can easily share images, videos and the other kind of the data with friends, relatives and the other people. Further, this technology has overcome almost all lapses of the traditional means of communication. Thus the voice over internet is becoming very popular among the individuals and a large number of people are using this service these days. Availing this service is very simple because lots of websites are offering PC to phone call software that helps the users to make free calls.

The PC phone telephony software brings to the individuals an easy billing system and the bills can be paid online sitting from office, home or any other place in the world. This method of telephony makes it quite easy to make various free international and domestic calls . Lots of businessmen are using this software and saving lots of money invested on phone bills. Thus, it is a very lucrative option for enjoying free calls.

There are various calling cards which are available from different retailers for making cheap business or personal calls. Some these cards allow to make free calling, whereas some other cards allow you to make low cost calls. So, it can be said that the voice over the internet is a revolution in world of communication to give the users easy and free option of talking.

If you want to avail VoIP services and enjoy making free talks, visit the internet and do a bit of research to clearly understand these services. The internet provides you with each and every detail about this service. So, do not lag behind to make free calls to your close ones.

Even in the 21st century, anything up to 80% of incoming communications traffic to any business is via voice telephony, so anything that impacts upon the reliability, and effectiveness, of voice telephony systems is a major issue. Staff, for example, may need to access a company voice network via a landline, a mobile phone, or VoIP (“Voice over Internet Protocol”), and effective call flow management is necessary to prevent calls, and business, being missed. The underlying technology, of course, needs to be up to the job, and there are a number of features that need to be considered when implementing effective call flow management.

Automated Call Distribution

Automated Call Distribution, or ACD for short, is a process whereby incoming calls are distributed to a series of answering positions, in sequence, so that if one position is busy, or unattended, a call can be picked up by the next, and so on. This can be useful in a customer service or support environment, such as a call centre where the volume of incoming calls is high, and calls need to be forwarded to the correct parties. ACD can also provide callers with the facility to record messages and, for administration purpose, can be used to gather call statistics and balance calls between telephone lines.

Hosted PBX

A PBX, or “Private Branch eXchange”, is a telephone exchange that serves, and is responsible for call flow management and queuing within, a particular company site. As the name suggests, a PBX is devoted to a single subscriber, and does not rely on switching equipment provided by a common, or public, telecommunications provider. As such it can be maintained by a company, itself, or by a provider appointed by the company.

Interactive Voice Response

Interactive Voice Response, or IVR, is a useful feature, which you may have come across yourself if you have ever topped up a mobile phone, or performed a similar activity. IVR allows routine transactions to be automated, via voice recognition, or a touch tone keypad, so that no interaction with a human operator is required. This can be useful for literature requests and other similar transactions, and, of course, can be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Hunt Group Routing

Hunt group, or “follow me”, routing allows you to configure a number of different destinations – including mobile and international numbers – at which a call can potentially be answered. Once again, if one number is busy, or unanswered, the call “cascades” to the next available number, and the next, until it is answered. If implemented correctly, hunt group routing may mean that missed calls are a thing of the past.

Fax-to-Email, Voice-to-Email

Fax-to-email or voice-to-email functionality essentially allows you to retrieve communications sent via fax, or voice telephony, on any device where you can access email messages. Fax transmissions to a fax-to-email number are automatically forwarded, as regular attachments, to your email account, while voice transmissions are attached as audio files – “.wav” files, for example – which can be played back on PC speakers, for example. In either case, nothing unusual is required on the part of the caller; he, or she, simply uses a fax machine, or voice telephone, in the usual way, and the document or voice message is delivered to a specified email address.

What’s PABX

The term PBX refers to a Private Branch Exchange. A PBX is sometimes called a telephone switch, business telephone system or phone switching device. The term PBX is synonymous with Electronic Private Automated Branch Exchange (EPABX) and Private Automated Branch Exchange (PABX). It is similar to a central office exchange but usually much smaller and privately owned. A central off exchange can accommodate 10,000 subscribers. PBX systems are typically designed to accommodate from 10 to 10,000 subscribers or extensions. A PBX is like a central office exchange for a single building of cluster of buildings. A PBX can handle many phone lines into or out of a particular location. Most advanced PBXs can facilitate both voice lines and data lines, route calls to other offices and to the public telephone network. With a PBX in place, each phone only needs an extension, not a phone number, and the PBX handles all calls made between individuals within the company.

The primary intent of a PBX is to route incoming calls to the appropriate extension within the office and to share a group of phone or “trunk” lines between extensions. When an outside call is required, an access number is dialed (example “9″) to access an outside trunk line. The PBX then transfers the call to the phone company’s Central Office. The telephone company then forwards the call to the desired number in the outside world.
Over time, PBXs have become far more sophisticated. Many facilities and functions have been added to create a centralized communication hub. These services include automated attendant greetings, recorded messages, interactive voice response, connection to voice mail, automated call distribution, call forwarding, wireless services, conference calling and many more.
A major advantage of a PBX is control over the numbers that can and cannot be dialed from within the system. A properly configured PBX can restrict access to certain costly numbers, such as directory services or 900 numbers, to authorized personnel only. A major savings also results from the ability of the PBX to share a group of lines among many extensions. For example, an office with 100 extensions can often be served by 10 to 15 lines. This results in huge savings from having to provide a line to every phone in the company.

Some of the most well known PBX manufacturers with huge customer premise installations include Avaya, Nortel, NEC, Siemens and Alcatel. These manufacturers have dominated the telecom space for many years. However, a new crop of IP PBX systems is entering the market packed with similar or enhanced features at much less cost. In fact, these new communication servers can reside on a computer processor running low cost operating systems.
Asterisk, an open source PBX, is touted as the world’s most flexible and extensible telephone system. It provides many features that compete with or exceed the power of proprietary telephone systems. In keeping with its open source concept, The Asterisk software is free and runs on relatively inexpensive Linux servers.

New technologies such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) are blowing away the covers from traditionally proprietary devices. This technology takes analog audio signals and converts them into digital form for transmission. Transactions are much more efficient since analog lines remain connected even during periods of no communication. VoIP packets are sent and received whenever there is activity. The information packets are sent over any open rather than a dedicated line making communication much more effective.

Most companies can recognize huge savings using this technology. The compression of the information and mode of delivery across multiple channels and routers makes packet switching more efficient, quicker and less expensive. The volume of simultaneous communication can be significantly increased using packet switching over circuit switching.
The major manufacturers of PBX equipment have contributed millions to their research and development budgets to produce solutions that allow customers to efficiently migrate their traditional PBX. Some are cleverly providing bridging solutions such as hybrid PBXs that include traditional TDM and VoIP capabilities.

“We recently talked with 450 companies in North America about their voice infrastructure plans, and the results clearly indicate a steady move to VoIP, which will put this market on a nice steady growth trajectory over the next few years.”, said Matthias Machowinski, directing analyst at Infonetics Research after the release of their Q1 2006 report.

According to Infonetics Research, annual revenue in the combined PBX market is forecast to grow to $11.4 billion in 2009, driven by strong IP PBX sales worldwide as more organizations move to voice over IP. Between 2005 and 2009, IP PBX revenue is forecast to jump 82% while TDM revenue plunges 88%.

According to a statement by In-Stat analyst Norm Bogen, “The IP PBX is revealing itself as more than a simple one-for-one replacement vehicle for digital systems. With closer ties to data, this new vehicle is influencing corporate power structures and will ultimately have even more far-reaching effects on how business is done around the globe.”
Communication managers need to wade through organizational challenges including infrastructure, financial and educational. The PBX is transforming itself to meet these ever changing needs.