VoIP vs PSTN

Since it was first introduced, IP telephony was quickly picked up as a cost-effective and future-proof alternative to PSTN. By 2021, the Hosting Tribunal reported that VoIP users reached a 3 billion mark – a huge milestone, in comparison to mere 2 million businesses left tied to a landline.

With more companies yearning for employee mobility and flexibility, there are no signs of this trend changing or even slowing down. But is it time to officially call PSTN quits?

What is PSTN?

PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) is a traditional circuit-switched telephone network. It’s best described by its other acronym POTS, or a Plain Old Telephone System. Since the late 1800’s, it has provided infrastructure and services for public telecommunication and brought forward landlines as a go-to option for personal and business communication.

What is VoIP?

In the last 30 years, VoIP quickly advanced and proved its reliability and versatility in the telco industry. Voice over Internet Protocol relies solely on the internet connection in order to make and receive calls. The audio data is sent as compressed packets over the network and these are later decoded and decompressed on the receiving end.

Main Differences Between PSTN and VoIP

While enabling successful long distance communication is the ultimate goal for both networks, it also draws the list of their similarities to an end. When it comes down to it, PSTN and VoIP take two completely different routes to achieve this aim. For instance:

Technology & Hardware

PSTN is a circuit-switched network between two points. It’s made up of copper wires that are used to transfer the analogue voice data. It’s heavily reliant on hardware such as telephone wiring, switching centers, cable systems, amongst others, to ensure high quality sound transmission.

On the other hand, VoIP is a packet-switched network that sends real-time digital voice signals from the sender to receiver over Wi-Fi or Ethernet connection. The users have the flexibility to make calls from their existing landline using an adapter, a specialized VoIP deskphone, or by downloading a softphone on their mobile phones, tablets or computers.

Cost

Calls over traditional landlines are charged according to two factors: distance and time. For a frequent international caller, this means hefty and unpredictable monthly bills, as well as difficulty estimating their telco budget.

In the case of VoIP, however, your monthly standard subscription completely scraps the element of surprise. It standardizes monthly or yearly price by the number of users and features you wish to implement and can be entirely adjustable to meet your business needs.

Plus, unlike PSTN, VoIP doesn’t require heavy infrastructure spending on hardware, wiring and individual phone installations. IP telephony easily repurposes existing devices and internet connection to fit its purpose requiring no additional initial investment. It’s estimated that businesses can save up to 80% by ditching traditional circuit switched networks.

Features

Since PSTN is only capable of making and receiving calls, IP telephony is the obvious winner when we consider the features on offer. VoIP isn’t about only making a call, but making the most of every call. It offers a boundless range of virtual features including:

• Voicemail
• Call transfer
• Call recording
• Call monitoring
• Call queues
• Call routing
• Availability status, etc.

Some systems can also offer popular AI powered tools, such as the digital receptionist. It helps assist the clients in a timely and efficient manner using automated commands, queueing and on hold music. With more sophisticated softwares, auto-attendants can also collect essential caller details to help agents instantly tailor their approach to the needs of the customer.

Benefits

PSTN

Despite being outplayed in terms of costs and features, it still sets the standards for:

• Security: VoIP’s reliance on the internet to transfer data is its greatest strength and its greatest weakness. As the Internet makes the set up vulnerable to malicious cyber attacks, businesses dealing with sensitive data prefer traditional landlines.
• Quality: It isn’t so much that VoIP cannot match the quality of the landline call, but it is frequently lacking the same consistency. With PSTN, the signals generally travel faster using copper wiring, and aren’t subject to low bandwidth.
• Usability: While businesses look forward to reaping the benefits of IP telephony – change is never easy. Landlines have long become the easy to use, comfort zone solution for many employees and managers.

VoIP

Aside from being the feature-rich and price effective solution as discussed earlier, VoIP offers a number of advantages that are difficult to outmatch:

• Flexibility: Take a pick at the devices, providers, SIP trunks, numbers, country codes you wish to use. IP telephony gives an unimaginable degree of freedom and control over the communication setup.
• Mobility: No dedicated infrastructure also means that the system can be adopted from anywhere, giving employees all the necessary tools to sustain their productivity.
• Scalability: In just one click, you can upgrade or downgrade your subscription to match your current business needs and scrap the need for lengthy (and costly) hardware replacement.
• Maintenance: Majority of VoIP maintenance can be done through automatic software updates that are not only free, but also only take a few minutes to install.

Conclusion

VoIP’s significant contribution and innovation in telecommunications can’t be dismissed. It is already an obvious choice for many, thanks to its convenience and flexibility alone. Yet, we wouldn’t be too quick to pronounce PSTN dead.

POTS offers an unmatched degree of reliability and consistency until today. It functions as a backbone and a safety net for many businesses who are still figuring out how to make the most of IP telephony. What we are experiencing, however, is the death of PSTN as we know it – a sole way of connecting and an only system to rely on.

For more information, please visit voip-info.org.