Hosted Telephony

Technically speaking, the term hosted phone system refers to any phone system in which the servers, hardware, and equipment are located outside your business location. Unlike a localised phone system which is located within your business premises, it is hosted and managed by third parties in a remote or off-site location, for example, in the cloud.

Before, people generally used phone systems like Central Exchanges (Centrex) hosted by third parties and not internet-based. However, most hosted phone systems today operate in the cloud. As a result, the term hosted phone system has become a synonym for cloud-hosted systems.

A cloud-hosted phone system uses VoIP technology (Voice over Internet Protocol) to send and receive calls over the internet, so it is also called a VoIP phone system. It offers a wide range of functionalities other than internet-based calling, including internet fax, video conferencing, SMS, and several features for unified communications and collaboration.

Hosted Phone systems offer numerous benefits for all departments within a company. For sales people in particular there is the benefit of mobility. The system can be integrated easily with any third-party apps which means any apps that are central to your sales people out in the field will still be viable. It can integrate with other features such as auto dialler and predictive dialler to create an enhanced customer experience.

In addition, the fact that users can login to their account on any computer means that they don’t even need their phone to access and utilise the system to make secure business calls. The encryption and identity security of the system also means the fact that agents are making calls outside the premises is no longer a data breach risk. Lastly, as sales teams are often subject to rapid expansion in high-sales seasons, the hosted system allows you to provide new phones quickly and easily when and as needed.

Hosted PBX is a Private Branch Exchange (PBX) hosted and managed by third-party business phone service providers. All modern hosted PBX systems are usually located in the cloud. They use VoIP technology to make and receive calls using internet connections rather than traditional copper wires or optical fibers.

While a traditional PBX is located on the premises of a business organisation, the cloud-hosted version is located in the off-site data centres of your service provider. As the servers and equipment are owned and managed by the vendor, you don’t have to install and maintain expensive infrastructure or hardware in your business location. Hence cloud-hosted PBX systems are more cost effective than traditional PBX.

You should note that we once had non-internet hosted PBX systems like the Centrex (Central Exchanges) that used telephone lines. However, modern hosted PBX systems are cloud-based and accessed entirely through the internet.

The answer to this question depends on a lot of factors – the size of your company, the scale of your operations, your call volume, the features you are looking for, and above all, your budget.

If you are looking for a feature-rich yet affordable cloud phone system for SMBs, the basic plan of Ringover is a good option, while the advanced plan suits growing businesses and large organisations. Being a unified communication platform, Ringover offers business functionalities other than voice calls, such as SMS, internet fax, video conferencing, call centre software solutions, and more.

Here is a list of some of the other popular cloud-hosted phone system providers that offer subscription-based plans:

1. Ringover
2. Quicktalk
3. Nextiva
4. Dialpad
5. 8x8
6. Ooma Office
7. RingCentral
8. Grasshopper Go-To Connect
9. Aircall
10. Vonage
11. magicJack
12. Zoom
13. Google Voice
14. Avaya OneCloud
15. Phone.com
16. CloudTalk

Switch to Ringover’s hosted phone system to enjoy unified business communications. It has all the features and functionalities of a traditional PBX system and offers functionalities beyond voice calling. Since the system is cloud-hosted, you don’t have to worry about setting up and maintaining expensive hardware and equipment. Subscribe to a plan and connect to Ringover’s cloud PBX to enjoy unmatched flexibility, mobility, and scalability.

In business telephony, the terms VoIP and hosted PBX are used interchangeably to refer to a phone system that allows users to make and receive calls over the internet. However, VoIP and hosted PBX have some technical differences.

For starters, VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is a technology that enables internet-based calling. It converts voice signals into data packets and transfers the packetised data over the internet. A cloud-hosted PBX is a Private Branch Exchange hosted in the cloud by third-party vendors, and it uses VoIP technology for calling.

Not all phone systems that use VoIP are cloud-hosted by third-party vendors. Organisations can have on-premise VoIP systems where the hardware is installed within the business premises. You can also connect your existing non-hosted PBX to VoIP using SIP trunks. However, all cloud-hosted PBX systems use VoIP in their operations and are owned, managed, and delivered by third-party service providers.