Cheap VoIP Service Yuba City

Choosing a cheap VoIP service in Yuba City

VoIP offers all kinds of useful functionality. For many companies, however, its main attraction is the ability to reduce their calling costs. The key to making this work is to look for the right balance of affordability and quality. With that in mind, here is a quick guide to choosing a cheap VoIP service in Yuba City.

Decide what you need now

One of the great advantages of VoIP is that it is very flexible and scalable. This means that it’s fairly easy to start with a small implementation and build up from there later if you wish. For most companies, especially SMBs, this is the astute approach. It makes for the quickest and simplest implementations, thus keeping upfront costs to a minimum. Once you’re saving money, you can then decide if you want to put some of those savings towards enhancing your VoIP service.

As a rule of thumb, therefore, you should aim to copy what you have now, but you do not need to copy it exactly. If you see that a service is unused, then ask yourself seriously if there’s any value in keeping it. Similarly, if you have the budget, consider spending it on value-add VoIP services which could help to reduce your costs.

For example, conference calling and video calling might be worth considering if you can use them to replace at least some business travel. Not only can they work out cheaper, but they are also likely to be more convenient and safer.

If you still need faxes, then you should be looking at Fax over IP (e-fax). Technically, this is different from VoIP (hence the different name) but the two services are often implemented together and most VoIP service vendors will support it. If you want to work with one which doesn’t, you could plug the gap with a vendor who specializes in Fax over IP. Using Fax over IP allows you to eliminate your traditional phone lines. It’s also more secure, cheaper, more convenient, and more space-efficient than traditional faxes.

Define your minimum service standards

At this point, the term “minimum service standards” means more than just technical standards, although these are, of course, important. They also mean security and compliance standards. These matter a great deal, especially since VoIP networks will, almost invariably, carry some personal data. This means they need to be developed with data protection in mind. These requirements increase if you want to implement call recording, especially if you want to store the recordings.  

It’s therefore vital to work with a VoIP service vendor who knows how to implement their service in a way that keeps you on the right side of law enforcers and regulators. For this reason, it’s best to stick to VoIP service vendors in Yuba City (or at least near Yuba City). They will be answerable to the same courts and regulators as you. This can also be useful if you have any other legal disputes.

Work out your equipment and infrastructure requirements

You’ll be eliminating all the infrastructure used in your existing telephone (and fax) service. This means you need to replace it. If you aim to keep costs low, then you should generally try to use softphones as much as possible. These are provided by your VoIP service vendor and are generally free (or very low cost). Remember that softphones generally need to be used with headsets, so you will need to budget for and source these.

Your other requirements will depend on what, exactly, you are implementing. For example, if you’re implementing conference calling, then you’ll probably want some speakerphones. If you’re implementing video calling, then you’ll need webcams and so on. You’ll probably have a choice between buying these items upfront or having them bundled as part of your contract. The former may get you a better deal but the latter will allow you to spread the cost.

You also need to decide how you’re going to meet the requirements for infrastructure. If you’re running your own data center, then there’s a strong possibility that you’ll need to run a project to upgrade your infrastructure. For everyone else, the choice is essentially between managed hosting plus a separate VoIP service contract and a VoIP service contract that includes hosting. Again, the former may work out to be more economical, but the latter could be more convenient.

Identify what you need from a calling plan

As a rule of thumb, you want a subscription to cover your core usage and reasonable ad hoc prices for everything else.

If you’d like to speak to one of the best cheap VoIP service partners in Yuba City, please click here now to contact Aperio.IT.