Next-generation Telephone Service

Proficient Telecom is a next-generation telecommunications services provider utilizing Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology to provide hosted business-class voice and data services.

What is VoIP? Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology converts voice into data so that your business can place and receive calls over your broadband Internet connection. Not to be confused with computer-based calling over the Internet, no computer is necessary to use Proficient's voice over IP services. Calls are intitiated and received through an integrated access device (IAD) provided by Proficient Telecom or to and from IP phones that are readily available from Cisco, Avaya, Mitel and other manufacturers. In fact, your business can even leverage the cost savings and added functionality of VoIP using your existing PBX.

How does it work?

Proficient Telecom utilizes a softswitch architecture to provide Hosted Voice services. Softswitch achitecture replaces the circuit-switched Class 5 architecture that carriers began using more than 20 years ago. Class 5 switches still provide quality service, but they offer considerably fewer features and are less efficient that next-generation softswitches which utilize IP.

With Proficient Telecom's Premier Voice services, your calls do not go over the wide open Internet. Instead they are directed to Proficient's network operations center, where they are interconnected back into the public switched telephone network and delivered to their destination. Inbound calls traverse the same network path, only in reverse.

Why is this important to my business?

In recent years, the volume of data traffic in the U.S. has surpassed the volume of voice traffic. As a result, telecommunications carriers have and will continue to invest heavily in IP networks to keep up with the growth in data.

However, maintaining and growing separate voice and data networks is inefficient, since both voice and data can easily share the same network. This drives up carrier costs and prices to end-users. Consequently, there is tremendous market incentive to combine these two networks. Today, carriers are busily deploying converged networks to reduce operating costs and the resulting value proposition to businesses has never been higher. The bottom-line for businesses is that a converged network provider is able to give you more bang for your buck.

Further, because next-generation services are hosted by the service provider, businesses do not need to make large investments in telephone PBXs or key systems to get PBX type functionality. In fact, the features of a hosted voice service often exceed the capabilities of the most expensive PBX systems. This can save tens of thousands of dollars of upfront investment in a PBX and hundreds to thousands of dollars a year in ongoing support costs.

Finally, IP communications has provided a fertile ground for the development of wide-ranging applications which benefit businesses through increased productivity and cost savings. Web-based tools to enable growing businesses to easily make station changes, adds and deletes without incurring hourly charges or undergoing complicated PBX training, are now available. Also, new call contol applications, such as simultaneous ring, find-me, follow-me, and Microsoft Outlook integration are increasing employee productivity.

All of this means that businesses have access to more features at better prices.

Proficient Telecom is at the forefront of this sea change in telecommunications.