How to Manage International Calls as an Expat with VOIP

Your options for contacting family members and friends while working abroad can be thin. If you also have a small business in your home country, keep in touch with your employees is expensive and often inconvenient. So, what do you as an expatriate and need to make international calls regularly?

 

VOIP Technology

VOIP stands for voice over Internet Protocol. It’s the technology that powers communications through the Internet. When you call someone on Skype, you are usually making a call through the Internet, with the same VOIP technology.

With Skype in mind, a smartphone, tablet or computer is all you need to make calls. It doesn’t matter where you are in the world, you can call anyone back home easily. The call rates are extremely low, it’s convenient and secure. For expatriates, business nomads and tourists, here are ways to utilize VOIP for communications the next time you are abroad.

 

Benefits of VOIP for Expats and Business Nomads

Inexpensive Calls

High costs are one reason expats fear keeping in touch with their families and business partners. If you make international calls regularly, using your typical SIM card to call back home can put a dent on your call rates. VOIP services providers offer a fixed number of minutes per month at a fee.  The average price is $20 per month for 100 minutes or more.

Some companies provide unlimited minutes and the ability to video conference with up to 100 people. You also get the freedom to make calls with two or more phones while at it. Compared to regular calls, VOIP services are much less cost-saving, sometimes as high as thousands of dollars for business operators.

 

Multi-Services

VOIP services aren’t meant for calls alone. You can text, video conference, receive and forward voicemails as well as fax messages. With VOIP, you have an efficient communication system for both local and international

As an expat who regularly communicates with other departments back home, VOIP makes your communication seamless. Whether you want to contact the finance department or the IT department, you don’t have to worry about being inconvenienced. Pick your phone, ask your recipients for a video conference at your pleasure.

 

Secure

The Internet and security don’t always go hand in hand when referring to communications. This is especially true where voiced calls and text messages are involved. With the best VOIP companies, security is guaranteed.

Of course, the security in any telecommunications service varies from one company to the other. The top 10 VOIP service providers, https://www.thetop10sites.com/business-voip, package voice signals into data packages that can’t be broken. Only your recipient’s IP phone or computer can decode the message.

 

Service Mobility

Let’s face it. Using your cell phone for business and personal calls can be inconvenient. You could have more than one line, but the costs and inconveniences involved may be limiting. If you work with people who also travel or work at home, the best option for you will be VOIP.

With one line, you can call your personal assistant who works at home. You can easily video call the assistant plus the warehouse manager. Call forwarding and switching between different locations is unnecessary. All the time you’d have to waste making calls between different departments is saved. There are also no geographical limitations for making calls, taking your business up with you.

 

Handling Big Data Requirements

Skype may be good for personal calls with your friends, but it’s disadvantageous for businesses. The quality of services offered and features provided is also limited. If your business involves sending and receiving constant files and documents, a professional VOIP service will be the most convenient solution.

Unlike professional VOIP services, Skype doesn’t work when either you or the recipient is offline. With commercial services, your messages are recorded when you are unavailable. When you log back on, you find all the voice messages.

With the right service, it doesn’t matter how much data you want to transfer. Whether you are in your neighbouring country or overseas, you can send terabytes of data fast and conveniently.

 

Increased Productivity

One of the worst challenges of using your cell phone to communicate overseas is poor connections. You could take an hour attempting to inquire something from the headquarters. If the voice call is important and compulsory, you could waste hours trying to communicate effectively.

IP phones provide high-quality calls irrespective of where you travel around the world. Of course, that depends on the exact provider you use. But compared to all other alternatives, there is hardly a service that beats VOIP for international voice and video calls.

With the time saved making calls efficiently, you can increase sales, save more on money and have more efficient communications. In the long-run, you get more value for money using VOIP than any other alternative.

 

Compatibility with Equipment and Software

When abroad and need to make a call to a landline phone, your laptop or smartphone may not offer much help. By contrast, VOIP phones are compatible with all available communication devices. They depend on specialized software to operate. If you have a device with the software, you can make calls to everyone else with similar technology.

The compatibility of equipment is particularly helpful to expats because you never know when you need to make an emergency call. Your smartphone can always fail you while abroad. It could get lost or have poor call quality. An IP phone is available for communications wherever you are. A secure Internet connection is all you need to make global calls.

 

To Conclude

Business nomad, expat, tourist – it doesn’t matter what mission you have abroad, you need to communicate back home. For expats, communication is part of your job. You have to talk to the headquarters, send and receive files, and catch up with them.

Some of the information you can communicate may be done on social media and cell phones. But for serious, business-related calls, nothing beats VOIP. With the right services, a one-month subscription can guarantee unlimited calls abroad. The calls are secure, cost-saving, and convenient.

Here are a few articles I’m sure you will enjoy reading:

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