The cost savings provided by VoIP are marginal compared to traditional telephony 

According to research undertaken by David Waterhouse for his doctorate, and presented at the Australian Telecommunications Users Group conference earlier this year, the savings to a business from VoIP can be as high as 75% on monthly telephony bills. The functions of VoIP also provide greatly improved communications within your operations, and to and from customers and staff who work in the field. This can mean that VoIP can create a lift in productivity that can assist you gain return investment on your VoIP investment within two years.

Smaller businesses will not replace their traditional fixed line telephones

Businesses are replacing their traditional telephone systems with internet solutions at a tremendous rate. Local telecommunications analysts, Market Clarity, recently forecast that internet-based VoIP services will attract six million consumer and SME users in Australia by 2011. Underlining the strength of the market, it also identifies 224 VoIP providers that are currently marketing internet telephony to local SMEs. Similar growth patterns are emerging globally where VoIP is fast becoming the standard for phone calls.

VoIP has poor voice quality

Most of the problems associated with sound quality are caused by the internet service companies providing the businesses with residential-level network services, which are delivered over the public internet. These services are inappropriate for business users. SMEs require a DSL network, which provides highly reliable and secure communications. Public internet-based VoIP services often result in calls dropping out, bits of words going missing, gaps when people are speaking and delays when sounds arrive. A highly robust, business-grade DSL VoIP network service eliminates this problem.

VoIP is too complicated for Australian SMEs

According to David Waterhouse, local businesses that have adopted VoIP report high levels of acceptance by staff, easy-to-use features and fast installations of hardware. Installations are usually seamless so that the transition from traditional telephony to VoIP is often unnoticed. We believe that small businesses can gradually migrate from an existing traditional telephone system to a complete VoIP solution at their own pace, to ease themselves into the benefits while transitioning users away from traditional telephony.

VoIP is not secure

A business-grade DSL VoIP network service is just as secure as traditional telephone services. Problems occur when you are using non-commercial level VoIP. Ideally, a VoIP network should feature a carrier neutral capability that virtually eliminates the need to use internet service providers using the public internet. VoIP network services delivered over the public internet cannot provide the reliability and high levels of security required by small business to protect their communications.