The telecommunications industry has developed vastly since the introduction of the conventional telephone back in 1876. Among all of the infrastructure sectors, the most dramatic changes and developments are thought to have taken place in the telecommunication sector. Read more
With the vast number of VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) providers that are promoting their services on the internet, it can be extremely difficult to make a decision on which service provider to select. This list of 10 questions will assist you in making the right choice for your business, and avoid you being contracted to a provider that is unable to meet your requirements for the next 12 to 24 months. Read more
ISDN is an acronym of Integrated Services Digital Network, which can be defined as a series of communication standards that allows the simultaneous digital transmission of data, voice, and other services over the public switched telephone network. The introduction of ISDN technology represented a move from analogue connectivity to digital, which offered significant improvements in quality. Although SIP (session initiation protocol) has been around for several years, it is only recently that advances in technology that have now made SIP an viable alternative to ISDN. The purpose of this article is to explore whether a business should replace ISDN with SIP. Read more
A SIP trunk is the use of SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) to set up communications over the Internet between a customer location and an Internet telephony service provider (ITSP), which transfers the SIP calls to the PSTN. Unlike in traditional telephony, where bundles of physical wires were once delivered from the service provider to a business, a SIP trunk is a logical connection from one point to another over the Internet. Read more
Historically, routing telephone calls was a manual task that was carried out by telephone operators using physical switchboards, but as technology improved over a number of years, this whole process has been replaced by purpose built computer hardware. More recently, with the emergence of VoIP telephony, technology has progressed to a level where a computer server is able to run custom software that allows it to handle and distribute telephone calls. This type of server is known as a Softswitch. Read more
Technology terms and definitions can be notoriously confusing, convoluted, and difficult to truly understand for the average person. This is definitely true for the term unified communications. Search the internet for the term unified communications, and you will discover that there are many different definitions that are radically different. Unified communications is a term that is difficult to define, but in practice in encompasses the principle of bringing different technologies together on one device or system. Read more
CDR or 'Call Detail Records' are historic call statistics that can be retrieved on a regular basis to assist in analysing the efficiency of a call centre and its campaigns. The information that can be obtained from CDRs has the potential to be a key factor in making call centre agents more adept at handling calls. Subsequently this can only improve the productivity of a call centre overall. Read more
For many individuals, the inconvenience and nuisance caused by unsolicited telephone calls forces them into a situation where they feel it is necessary to investigate measures that will enable them to prevent calls of this nature being made to them. The only real option an individual has of taking action in order to stop unsolicited calls being made through to them is to register with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS). Read more
SIP is an acronym for Session Initiation Protocol. SIP can be described as a signalling protocol that is used for controlling communication sessions over Internet Protocol (IP). Examples of the types of communications sessions controlled by SIP include voice and video calls, instant messaging, and online games. The SIP protocol can be used for creating, terminating, and modifying sessions that can consist of several media streams. Read more
The Telephone Preference Service (TPS) is a free service that allows individuals to officially register their wish not to receive unsolicited sales and marketing calls. It is also possible for corporate entities to register their wish not to receive unsolicited sales and marketing calls by registering with the Corporate Telephone Preference Service. Once registered to either of these services, it is a legal requirement for contact centres not to contact anybody registered with the TPS or CTPS. Read more
