Alt-text: A VoIP installer checking a business’s new system
Are VoIP systems secure? Are they reliable? These are two extremely common questions from businesses looking to change how they communicate.
In a vacuum, VoIP services should outperform landlines in reliability, security, and more. However, it all depends on the provider you choose.
Let’s look at why VoIP is secure and reliable, how to choose the right provider, and how we ensure both of these essential parts of VoIP phone services.
Is VoIP the right communications solution for your business? Book a demo and find out.
Is VoIP Secure? Why Choosing the Right Provider Matters
Security matters for every business, no matter how large or small. Any disruption to your phone system could end catastrophically. VoIP is no different.
The lower costs of switching to VoIP attract many business owners, but how secure are they? Fortunately, as long as you choose a reliable provider and follow security best practices, VoIP is quite secure.
Security risks for VoIP systems include attacks like caller ID spoofing, DoS, and call interception. All it takes is one breach to cost your company millions.
Related: Boosting Business Connectivity With VoIP Solutions
Is VoIP More Secure Than Traditional Phone Systems?
While intercepting a call that uses audio signals (like landline phones) is relatively easy, VoIP services establish calls with SIP — Session Initiation Protocol — making calls more secure.
VoIP phone services, like ours at SE Telecom, offer various security features that make VoIP safer than traditional systems. These security features include things like:
- Real-time monitoring of plan usage
- Get voicemail sent directly to your inbox
- Call encryption that prevents eavesdropping
- Enforcement of toll-free calls
The best VoIP vendors use military-grade security, like Session Border Controllers (SBCs). Those SBCs maintain local call routing and stable performance. In the event of a security vulnerability, they get patched almost immediately.
And because call logs for traditional phone systems are extremely limited, making it extremely difficult to track stolen business data — something that’s not an issue with VoIP.
How to Choose a Secure VoIP Provider
VoIP security comes down to implementation and compliance. There are various signs you should look for that signify a reliable provider.
Do they have accreditations or certifications?
- ISO/IEC 20071 is a certification showing that an organization has implemented data security controls and can assess and respond to any security threats.
- SOC 2 Compliance means that the company ensures user trust in areas including security, privacy, and data integrity.
- HIPAA Compliance is a must-have if your business is in the healthcare sector. VoIP servers must protect patient privacy.
- PCI Compliance ensures that the platform protects financial information when taking or receiving payments.
Do they encrypt all calls?
Other than certifications, you want to ensure any provider you look into has call encryption — specifically Secure Real-time Transport Protocol and Transport Layer Security (SRTP and TLS).
Anyone can get into an unencrypted network, but encrypted data ensures that no one can use that information, even if they manage to get ahold of it. You want encryption on every layer of your business, from the phone to your service provider.
SIP doesn’t use encryption — the transport layer is responsible for managing it. Ensure that your VoIP provider provides SRTP and TLS encryption and that your SIP devices can use those two protocols.
Alt-text: Two developers working on VoIP security features
Related: Scaling Communications for Growth
How Reliable Is VoIP? As Reliable as the Provider You Choose
We’ve used traditional phone systems for over a hundred years and rarely question their reliability. But what about VoIP — is it reliable enough to use for your business’s communication?
The short answer is yes. Keep reading for the long answer.
VoIP vs. Landlines: Uptime
There’s a gold standard for uptime that all of the best VoIP providers will hit — 99.999% uptime. What does that mean? Your service might be unavailable for up to six minutes each year. We’d say that’s pretty reliable.
The uptime for VoIP systems revolves around the provider, its carriers, and the devices you use. To accomplish high uptimes, VoIP providers use a redundant network of data centers to ensure their servers stay up for long periods.
On the other hand, landline phones can experience outages due to power loss and weather. It could take hours or days for the phone company to restore your service. But as long as you have an internet connection, you can use VoIP.
Even if you lose power and internet, you can still use VoIP services by routing calls to your cell phone.
VoIP Reliability: Call Quality and Redundancy
One huge advantage that VoIP has over landlines is reliable call quality. Thanks to advancements in audio codecs, you can hear a wider range of sound when using VoIP.
Plus, think about audio conferencing — if you call in from a phone, everyone will hear the background noise from wherever you are, something your boss won’t like. But with VoIP’s advanced features, you can ensure everyone can hear you and only you.
When it comes to redundancy, VoIP is the clear winner. Landlines have one point of failure, but VoIP always has a backup available. And if that doesn’t work, you can take calls on your phone with your VoIP provider’s mobile app.
How to Choose a Reliable VoIP Provider
While VoIP is more reliable than traditional landlines, not all VoIP providers are equal.
What’s their uptime?
The easiest way to check a provider’s reliability is to look at their uptime. Most providers will post a status page on their website, allowing you to check their current and past uptime. At SE Telecom, we only partner with providers with excellent uptime.
How is their customer support?
Another factor of reliability is what happens when you have an issue with your phone system. You want to see:
- Fast response times
- 24/7 availability
- Reps that are knowledgeable, friendly, and helpful
Related: Remote Work Revolution & Unified Communications
Get Secure, Reliable VoIP Services With SE Telecom
Alt-text: A businesswoman posing for a photo
So, is VoIP safe and reliable? You bet it is!
At SE Telecom, we’ve been helping businesses transform their communications systems for over 20 years.
Security and reliability are our focus. Whether you run a small business or a large enterprise, you can find your new VoIP solution with us.
Ready to make the switch? Get a reliable, secure VoIP system that scales with you — Welcome to SE Telecom.