IP Telephony vs. Instant Messaging

Desktop instant messaging and mobile instant messaging (即時通信軟體, e.g. Google Talk, LINE, Skype, Whatsapp) are more and more widely adopted as a business telecommunication medium, as a result mainly driven by individual employees using consumer-grade free apps either on PCs or on their own mobile devices at work. However, telephone still plays a very important role of a more effective, more efficient, more reliable, and also more instant way of telecommunication which is a necessary for all businesses.

LINE logo - A popular social instant messaging app.

Those popular in-use social instant messaging apps send text, voice and even video over the Internet, so users can reach contacts out of their workplace conveniently, enjoying mobility and boundary-less communication at none of expenses. This is a significant advantage that instant messaging provides but traditional circuit-switched telephone technology (voice over "PSTN + PBX") doesn't.

Traditional circuit-switched telephone technology (voice over "PSTN + PBX") limits corporate internal telephony network within one premises (i.e. office / building in one geographic location) which does not meet today's needs for a more flexible, portable and secure business telecommunication technology.

Thanks to the use of VoIP technology, there comes a new sort of PBX which can send and receive calls over packet-switched IP networks (e.g. LAN, WAN, Internet) so corporate internal telephony services can be substantially or virtually extended beyond office boundaries. That is, IP-PBX (網路電話總機, IP 電話系統).

Compact multi-functional IP-phone and IP-PBX products from Suilah.com

Multinational enterprises have adopted to and implemented the use of VoIP technology for long time. It is already a well developed and matured technology with global adoption. Now we would like to introduce it to you and encourage you to adopt your traditional telephony to VoIP technology. You can build your own multi-site (多據點企業, 連鎖專櫃) corporate internal telephony network covering across the geography (跨縣市, 跨國際, 企業內線網路電話系統) by using the compact and powerful IP-PBX and IP-phone solutions from Suilah.com.

Suilah IP-PBX series are developed and designed in Taiwan and California, and well made in Taiwan. Our IP-PBX (網路電話總機, IP 電話系統) provides not only excellent voice quality and tons of powerful call features, but also first-class system stability and reliability. We have a promotional program specially focusing on small and medium enterprises (SME / 中小企業) in Taiwan. Contact us for more information.

Suilah, that's it.

Relevant posts:

• How to make call from your web to your phone?

• Phone Security

• Why Unified Communications?

• Built for Your Multi-site Business Telephony

Phone Security

The use of public VoIP telephony, which puts the user's voice and the call control signaling data packets transmitted on the public open accessible Internet, largely enhances a corporate's telecommunication capability in terms of operational agility, flexibility, mobility and portability at none of repeat spending on maintaining PSTN (POTS) end-point equipment on distributed sites and/or leasing costly private network connections (VPN). This is even truer for those inter-regional or international businesses.

However, the good of VoIP (especially of public VoIP) also comes with some telecom security issues or risks. As reported by researches (see reference below), in general, it needs more effort and skills to maintain a highly secured communication for VoIP users than for that PSTN / PLMN users (e.g. circuit-switched landline or cellular). Using non-encrypted and non-authenticated VoIP telephony on the public Internet exposes the communication to more threats and risks than using the same on a secured private network.

Sticker on a telephone warning users of phone tapping by the government.
Photo courtesy Wikipedia.org

As can see from the above, applying encryption and authentication measures on your VoIP system may be a doable solution to better secure your phone talk. You can find more information or resources about Secure Communication and Secure Telephone on Wikipedia.org.

While VoIP technology provides strong features of operational agility, flexibility, mobility and portability, it still remains relatively vulnerable and weaker to prevent from either lawful or unlawful threats of phone security issues today, such as wiretapping, remote eavesdropping, intercepting and so on. Still many works to do for making better reliable and secured VoIP uses, and POTS can still last for a foreseeable future. Need not to criticize or laugh on each other technology. Sharing an interesting quote from an Italian wisdom saying:

Declare someone dead before his death and you prolong his life.

But, neither the PSTN / PLMN stays safe and sound all the time. What if big boss wants agencies spying on your phone? Best practice: Off your phone. The old golden rule No. 1 is still true today:

Do not be talky on the phone. Keep matters off the line.

Suilah, that's it.


Related post:

• How to make call from your web to your phone?
• Built for Your Multi-site Business Telephony

Reference:

• Reports on telephone related security issues, updated to 2005, by SANS Institute.

• Security Issues and Solutions for VoIP Compared to Circuit Switched Networks, 2004, by Andon Batchvarov, University of Stuttgart.

• Risk Analysis on VoIP Systems, 2011, by Knútur Birgir Otterstedt, University of Iceland.

• Prosecutors official catched an alleged influence-peddling case by skillful telephone tapping on legislative speaker (parliament chairman) and an opposite party's lawmaker, and presented it to the general public by a loud announcement on a press conference Friday, Sep. 6, 2013. (ref. 1, ref. 2, ref. 3.)

• News - Back doors may be opened. Perhaps only encryption can work and help. Using strong open-source crypto systems would be still the most reliable. "Security through obscurity is unreliable." Abstracted from a news story on The Economist.

• 5 tips of staying secure online, by Bruce Schneier, theguardian.com.

Call from your web to your phone

Receiving global web calls right on your desk phone or mobile phone. Not necessary to be stick on your PC anymore.

Compact, robust, powerful and multi-functional IP-PBX and IP-phone from Suilah.com

Telephone call still plays as the most efficient and effective way of real-time interpersonal communication among various telecommunication technologies today, e.g. email, voicemail, fax, text messaging, etc. And, video phone call works even better than audio phone call does in communication effectiveness and message delivery.

Having a convenient and flexible telephony system to use is so important for companies in the competitive and fast-changing business environment. Adapting VoIP technology into your corporate telephone system is the first step to achieve the goal.

sipML5 global solution architecture

Take Suilah.com as an example, website visitors from anywhere around the world (wherever the Internet access is available) can click the green "call us" button on the right side of the webpage to make a free audio phone call to our Suilah staff. Just need to click the button again to disconnect after the phone talk. This feature is made possible by incorporating the "click-to-call" technology with our SIP-based IP PBX network system.

* Note - As of September, 2013, the click-to-call feature is available on our web version site only, unavailable on our mobile version website. Known and tested web browsers that support the feature are Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. Sorry, Apple's Mac OS X Safari browser seems not supporting yet.

This feature enables our esteemed domestic and overseas visitors and customers, and our staff in the field to enjoy high-quality voice communication from anywhere in the world at none of telephone charge on each.

Interested in this useful application? Call or send your message to Suilah, free!

Suilah? Yes, it is.

Related post:

• Phone Security
• Built for Your Multi-site Business Telephony

Reference for further reading:

Understanding what VoIP means - an abstract from the book "VoIP for Dummies."