VoIP Bonus Features
Does VoIP offer the same bonus features as regular phone service?
Yes. You can get the same features as your traditional phone system, such as call waiting, call forwarding, caller id, caller id blocking. All of those features are available in a voice over IP system, and then some. You actually have more control and capability than you did using your traditional system. In the past, you had to dial star codes to enable or disable features. In the new voice over IP world, you do have to do the star codes as well, but a lot of times they're giving you also a web interface, or you can actually turn features on using your computer, so you have a lot more power and flexibility.
Is voice mail better using VoIP?
Voice mail is a great feature with Voice over IP. What you can do is, basically, when you get a phone call, and you don't answer the phone, it goes to your voice mail, and they record a message, you can actually have that voice mail sent to your e-mail and listen to it in a WAV format. So there's that feature that's available and you can turn on, through usually a web browser--you go to your portal and turn that feature on.
What is the 'virtual numbers' feature offered with VoIP?
Virtual numbers are a lot like alternate numbers. Basically, you get assigned another number. It might be a city or state that's closer to somebody that you know that you make a lot of calls to. And to that person that's calling you, it's going to appear like a local call to them. The problem, again, is the 911 problem that is causing issues where if that outbound call appears from that virtual number as a New York number and you live in Florida, for example, then the 911 will be dispatched to New York and not Florida.
What is the 'real-time billing' feature offered with VoIP?
In most cases you have to wait for your phone bill to get your billing information like where you've called, your call log and different things. You cannot go on line and look at it live. With voice over IP everything is computer based so you can go right online, log into your account and you can actually see every call that you make minute by minute live.
What is the 'call forking' feature offered with VoIP?
Call forking is also known as simultaneous ring. And what simultaneous ring is, is it allows you to take an inbound call and have it ring multiple devices. So it could be your home phone. It could also be a cell phone. So if you're travelling or if you're away, you can actually take a call to a remote office at the same time it's ringing your base phone, which might be at your home.
What is the 'Do Not Disturb' feature offered with VoIP?
Do Not Disturb' gives you the ability to shut off inbound calls and go straight to voice mail. So if you're busy or you don't want your phones to ring you can actually just disable that feature with a star code or log into your web browser and go in and shut off that feature. It's a lot like turning off your phone on your cell phone.
