Making Connections
Leading a group of tourists from Quincy on an excursion to the Panama Canal earlier this year, Quincy’s Discount Travel Service owners Dennis and Susie Boudreau were never out of touch with their businesses in Quincy.The Boudreaus, who also own Your Electronic Warehouse and Discount Golf World of Quincy, used an Internet-based technology that allowed them to call home and businesses whenever they wanted. It would have cost them $18 a minute to use the ship’s telephone. Instead, they paid a total of $10 to connect to the ship’s wireless Internet throughout the trip.
“Guys were amazed I was talking into my computer and calling home,” Dennis Boudreau said. “On the cruise ship, I could just dial my number and get right to my office, check my voice mail, hit an extension and talk to my guys. No matter where you are in the world, it’s like being in your office.”
The Boudreaus were “early adapters” to the technology that enables them to use the Internet for telephone calls. The technology is called “Voice over Internet Protocol” (VoIP), and it enables a caller to use a computer with a high-speed Internet connection for local and long-distance conversations. There also are VoIP-enabled phones that can be connected to the Internet, as well.
“We have a phone that can tie into any Internet connection,” said Justin Meats, information technology director for the Boudreaus’ businesses. “Instead of a phone jack, it has a network jack on the back of it. You can plug it into any Internet connection in the world and it becomes like a phone right here at work. It would be like it originated in Quincy and wouldn’t cost you anything for the call.”
VoIP users can make an Internet connection — as long as it is high-speed like DSL or broadband — to place phone calls to and from anywhere in the world. That kind of flexibility is attracting business to the technology. Also winning business’s attention to VoIP is that it can be used without additional operating cost.
Mike Melton, president of United Systems, a Quincy communications firm which has begun providing the service in the Quincy area, said about a dozen Quincy area businesses are using VoIP to connect their phone system to the Internet because of its flexibility and cost savings.
In much the same way as Web sites are delivered from around the world to a local computer, the Internet’s technology can be used to connect telephone callers by avoiding traditional telephone lines — and charges.
“This allows them to bypass the phone company, meaning no long-distance charges,” Melton said. “So you can make phone calls throughout the world over the Internet. Businesses are finding opportunities with VoIP to reduce cost and increase efficiency.”
Mark Bross, a civil engineer with Klingner and Associates’ Hannibal office, said the Quincy-based engineering firm uses their VoIP system like an intercom.
“We can hit a button on the phone called ‘pooled line,’ our Internet line, then hit the two- or three-digit phone number that goes directly to someone’s desk,” Bross said. “It eliminates using our long-distance network between offices.”
When his office’s five lines are busy, the VoIP line remains open.
“When you’re collaborating between offices on a project and have to get answers, that can be big,” Bross said.
Melton said the best VoIP business candidates are those that have multiple locations or employees working in the field.
“VoIP can connect them using the business’s existing data network,” he said, “so that they don’t use outside lines. That assures that the regular phone service is free for customer calls.”
Melton pointed to branch banks as examples of multiple service. With Internet phone service, the banks’ communications can be integrated. Incoming calls can be routed into the system to one receptionist, avoiding the need for someone at each branch to handle calls.
The technology requires a high-speed Internet connection like a cable modem, DSL or broadband. Dial-up connections operate too slowly for quality communications, and conversations can sound choppy or broken.
VoIP also is becoming more readily available to personal callers. Companies like Vonage (www.vonage.com) are offering similar services for monthly fees. Even AT & amp;T (www.att.com) and Verizon (www22.verizon.com) are offering subscribers new VoIP services. Web-based Skype (www.skype.com) provides a free download that enables computer-to-computer voice communication.
Meats, the Boudreau companies’ technology director, said he recently subscribed for a personal VoIP line with Packet8 (www.packet8.net) and receives unlimited calling anywhere in the U.S. and Canada for less than $20 a month, including several features like caller ID, call forwarding and waiting, free of charge. He said he was able to convey his current telephone number to the Internet line.
Like the business VoIP service, personal Internet voice service requires a high-speed Internet connection.
Published April 10, 2005 - Copyright 2005 Quincy Herald Whig
Contact Business Editor Reg Ankrom at rankrom@whig.com or (217) 221-3385
