Is VoIP the 'Next Big Thing' in Telecommunications?

Written by Marvin Bellnick


VoIP or Voice Over Internet Protocol has been simmering forrepparttar past few years. This yearrepparttar 142556 market has heated up. Many large businesses have jumped onrepparttar 142557 VoIP bandwagon and have realized savings of 50-percent or more off their phone bills. VoIP providers are competing to add to or replace large PBX systems forrepparttar 142558 corporations and add web conferencing capabilities plus wireless VoIP (wVoIP) over LAN’s as well.

Hospitals and other large, fragmented workforces are discoveringrepparttar 142559 value of using wireless VoIP phones to converse with one another quickly and efficiently while in different wings, floors or buildings of a large facility. This kind of wireless VoIP setup can have huge cost savings over cell phones and is more efficient that using pagers.

While business VoIP has caught on inrepparttar 142560 corporate landscape, residential VoIP is still trying to take hold. This is largely because of a couple of current disadvantages of VoIP. First, not all current VoIP systems have power backups. Whenrepparttar 142561 power goes out in a residence,repparttar 142562 landline is still operational. Since VoIP works over a high-speed Internet connection, which requires power, ifrepparttar 142563 power goes down, so doesrepparttar 142564 VoIP connection. This will be of concern to many concerned about emergency situations. The good news is that many VoIP hardware providers are starting to deliver systems with power backup to address just this issue.

The second drawback of residential VoIP is that not all current VoIP service providers offer full, 24-7 emergency 911 service. After hour calls in Florida, may be mistakenly rerouted to Idaho for instance. This is also about to change. The Federal Communications Commission has mandated that all phone service providers offer e911 service as standard. According torepparttar 142565 FCC, “All interconnected VoIP providers must automatically provide E9-1-1 services to all customers as a standard, mandatory feature without customers having to specifically request this service. VoIP providers may not allow their customersrepparttar 142566 option to “opt-out” of E9-1-1 service.”

Think before you speak

Written by Graham Yemm


How many times have you said something and realised thatrepparttar person, or people, onrepparttar 142513 receiving end have not fully understood what you meant or headed off and done something different to what you intended?

Have you ever finished a presentation or meeting wishing you had put your point across better?

This article is not about keeping cool or holding your temper before you speak, although that would not be a bad thing for many of us at times! The focus is going to be about improving your ability to influence others, especially when communicating verbally.

How often do any of us stop to think before we speak? It is probably fair to suggest that most of us tend to decide what we want to achieve orrepparttar 142514 point we want to put across – then we launch into speaking. If you recognise yourself in this, you are inrepparttar 142515 vast majority. Taking a short time to consider a few other factors can improve our effectiveness. One message which can help to improve our impact (and reducerepparttar 142516 frustrations!) is to acknowledge: “the meaning of my communication isrepparttar 142517 response I get.”

When we are in face to face communicationrepparttar 142518 generally accepted figures indicate that only 7% ofrepparttar 142519 impact of our message is due torepparttar 142520 actual words andrepparttar 142521 balance is made up from non-verbal elements, including tone of voice. Althoughrepparttar 142522 words themselves are only a small part, and need to be congruent withrepparttar 142523 other elements for our message to carryrepparttar 142524 real impact – they are still vital to effective communication.

It is strange to think how little training we get in speaking and listening as means of communication! Yet, in our adult lives,repparttar 142525 majority of our interactions are based on verbal communication. When you think back to your school days, how much time was spent on learning to read and write? (Although, when we consider current levels of literacy we may want to debate whether this is particularly effective!)

To improve our impact when we need to deal with people face to face, whether on a one to one basis or in groups, it can help to stop and think of a few things before we launch into whatever we want to say. One ofrepparttar 142526 first things is to consider our audience first. When we are “receiving” any communication it passes through various “filters” before we decoderepparttar 142527 message. These can include:

  • Our own mood and emotions will influence how we receiverepparttar 142528 message.
  • Our impression ofrepparttar 142529 sender
  • Past dealings with that person
  • Howrepparttar 142530 message impacts on us
  • Our level of understanding ofrepparttar 142531 words being used
  • How we process words
  • Our internal “programmes”
How often, as a sender do we ever take time to think about any of these points? Taking some time think aboutrepparttar 142532 listener or your audience will improve our ability to communicate with others. We may find ourselves expressing ourselves differently – and more effectively. You may have hear aboutrepparttar 142533 idea of “put yourself inrepparttar 142534 other’s shoes” or variations onrepparttar 142535 theme. People who are really good communicators do this, whether they are doing it consciously or not. By considering things fromrepparttar 142536 other party’s position you will get a different perspective. This enables you to consider your message in more ways – yours and theirs!

As we go through life we develop our own style of expressing ourselves. The key to becoming more effective is to increase our flexibility, so that we can present our messages to suitrepparttar 142537 receivers.

Take a moment to think aboutrepparttar 142538 options here. Suppose we were to describe a holiday resort.

Imaginerepparttar 142539 clear blue sky, andrepparttar 142540 lovely sea withrepparttar 142541 sun’s rays reflecting off it in bright spots. The white sand ofrepparttar 142542 beach,repparttar 142543 small beach bar withrepparttar 142544 people sitting around, looking tanned and smiling asrepparttar 142545 chat together. The view inland is of bright white cottages and buildings going uprepparttar 142546 hill withrepparttar 142547 dark green leaves ofrepparttar 142548 olive trees.

Maybe, you can imaginerepparttar 142549 warmth ofrepparttar 142550 sun,repparttar 142551 feel ofrepparttar 142552 sand. The water feels so welcoming as you walk intorepparttar 142553 sea. When you come out of there and head forrepparttar 142554 bar, it isrepparttar 142555 thought ofrepparttar 142556 cold drink slipping down and feeling good about being relaxed. The smells of what they are cooking on an open grill waft across to make you think about eating.

Or, is itrepparttar 142557 idea ofrepparttar 142558 quiet ofrepparttar 142559 bay, broken byrepparttar 142560 occasional sound of a jetski? As you head forrepparttar 142561 bar, you imaginerepparttar 142562 chatter ofrepparttar 142563 various conversations,repparttar 142564 different accents. You can think aboutrepparttar 142565 music being played and how you might talking with others aboutrepparttar 142566 place and planning what to do for dinner later. Mayberepparttar 142567 birds where singing inrepparttar 142568 morning or evening.

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