Voice Over IP – Why You Should Care!

Picture this… 

You’ve needed a new phone system for years but the “new” economy forced you to put it on hold.  So your company has been hampered by your old digital phone system for way too long.

Fast forward to present day.  Your business has started to improve and you’re evaluating new voice over IP solutions – great!  But now you’ve identified another challenge.  Not only is your phone system outdated, but so is your wiring.  What can you do?

Some vendors are telling you “No problem, your computer wiring is fine so just daisy-chain your phone & computer on the same network by sharing one wire.  After all, the phones are equipped with 2 Ethernet ports”.

Other vendors are advising you to rewire.  But as you explore new wiring options, you realize that it adds a significant cost and will cause a huge disruption to your organization.

And to complicate matters even more, a couple of vendors are proposing “hybrid” systems with “digital” phones that can use the old wiring.

So you start thinking about your options:

1. Share one wire and daisy-chain my phones & computers?  But that’s not a clean solution.  Our network has grown over time and we’ve got a lot of switches and hubs installed under desks and behind modular furniture.  How will this affect voice quality?  And if we do have problems, how much more will it cost us to get it right?  And why is our VoIP vendor so indifferent about such a major issue?  They just don’t seem to care about our network.
2. Rewire for the new VoIP phones?  But there’s a significant cost that makes the new system unaffordable.  And rewiring involves a huge disruption that will negatively impact our business operations.  Isn’t there a better way?
3. Install a hybrid system with digital phones?  But that’s a short-sighted, temporary solution.  Although the hybrid costs less than a VoIP system, it’s a lot of money for yesterday’s technology.  And just because it’s got a few Ethernet ports on it doesn’t make it a VoIP system.  We should just stay with our current system for a few more years than invest in technology that will soon be obsolete.

Then your IDeACOM representative offers a suggestion.  Why not optimize your existing phone wiring and “VoIP-enable” it so you can preserve the independent voice & data networks already in place.  And you think – huh, that makes perfect sense!  So they bring in a demo of a LAN switch that delivers Ethernet over a single pair of wire.  They can optimize your existing voice wiring and establish a parallel voice LAN for your new VoIP phones.  And eliminate the voice quality issues that will arise on a data network that’s not capable of supporting simultaneous voice & data.

Now you’re saying “WOW, that’s a great solution.  Not only does it satisfy our concerns, it allows us to install our new VoIP solution cost-effectively and in the best possible way “.

What did IDeACOM recommend?  A Phybridge VoIP switch.  Check out their new PoLRE line of switches (Power over Long Range Ethernet) at www.phybridge.com.

Phybridge is a unique voice over IP network switch that provides a category 5e equivalent network connection on a single pair of wire, with power (PoE) and over 4 times the distance of traditional Ethernet switch technology.

This is a must see!  Contact IDeACOM today to schedule a demonstration of this impressive, game-changing technology.