The potential of VOIP

One-third of South Africans are currently using the Internet, and that number is expected to grow by over 20% in the next year, according to a study by The New Wave.

The New Wave found 15% of South Africans were connected to the Internet in 2008, 34% were connected in 2012, and by next year, half of the population will actively use the Internet.

Improving Internet resources mean a great percentage of the population may soon start to use VOIP. VOIP is a rising star in South Africa and around the world. VOIP is the Internet technology that allows users to send calls via Internet Protocol, rather than through analogue transfer systems. Read more about how VOIP works here.

With VOIP, phone users generally spend less on their monthly phone bills, but get more features and services in return. Internet calling is almost always unlimited within the country, and it eliminates long-distance charges nationwide. In addition, many providers offer extremely low rates on international calls as well.

1. What can a customer do with VOIP?
The South Africans surveyed in The New Wave report said they use Internet technology to obtain faster information, socialise with friends, work, or to look for employment. VOIP allows users to do all of these things, while also saving money on their monthly phone bills. Customers can enjoy longer and more frequent phone calls with friends and family, and can more easily interview for jobs all over the country or the world with a VOIP phone service. In addition, many VOIP providers offer video chatting services, which can make all the difference in personal and professional communications.

2. Can users use VOIP on their mobile phones?
Most VOIP service providers offer free or cheap mobile VOIP apps. With these apps, customers can take their residential or business phone service with them wherever they go, meaning they will still be able to receive and send free calls through their landline VOIP number while using their cellphones. Recent studies have shown three out of four South Africans access the Internet on their mobile phones, which is a perfect vehicle for cheap VOIP phone services.

VOIP is a rising star in South Africa and around the world.

Of course, users need to be able to access the Internet from their mobile phones whenever they want to use mobile VOIP, so in some parts of the country, this will be much less of a possibility. In areas without free public WiFi and out of the range of cellular data networks, customers cannot access the Internet to use their mobile VOIP apps.

Improved technological services in SA will mean good things for business growth, especially for businesses that conduct nationwide or worldwide business. Improved communication services can only benefit companies ready to grow.

1. How can business owners use VOIP?
VOIP works just like any other landline service: customers can continue to use the same phone numbers they already have, as most providers offer number porting, and customers will have unlimited calling to all phone numbers in the country. That is, VOIP users can call people who use cellular numbers or analogue numbers just as they could with an old-fashioned telephone service. So, when a business trades out its phone system for a business VOIP service, the only real difference it should notice is in its monthly phone bill.

2. How can home business owners use VOIP?
Residential VOIP is perfect for home business owners. Not only will their monthly phone bills stay cheap, but these business owners can also utilise VOIP features like IP faxing and mobile VOIP technology for improved connectivity services, which will make them seem like a big business to customers and clients.

3. Improved access to VOIP and the South African economy
VOIP has been available in South Africa for about six years and is unregulated. This means VOIP providers are not subject to many of the taxes and fines that many traditional phone service providers face. This translates to lower costs on monthly services for customers.

Internet speed is also getting faster, which is essential for a great VOIP service, and the better Internet services become, the more connected the general South African population will become with each other and with the world. SA has better access to Internet services than most African countries, at 2.32Mbps versus the average African speed of 1.6Mbps.

And improved communication services translate to more tech-savvy and plugged in businesses, which will lead to more streamlined and efficient businesses with greater potential for growth, which has often been seen to lead to job creation, as less of the company budget goes towards overhead.