Internet Phone Service
Make calls over the internet and manage them through a full-featured online phone service.
What is internet phone service?
A cloud internet phone service, as its name says, is a phone system rooted on the internet, which allows users to make and receive calls from anywhere using their laptop or mobile device. Internet phone services provide businesses with the mobility, flexibility, and advanced call features that weren’t possible with on-premises phone systems. The best part is that it comes in affordable plans and pricing, perfect for small business needs.
Internet phone service providers combine the best of regular landline phones – highly secure, with clear call quality – with the flexibility of modern communication services like texting, conferencing, mobility options, frequent upgrades and updates, and 24/7 customer support. Traditional business phones and PBX (Private Branch Exchange) systems are just no match for this.
What is an internet phone call?
An internet phone call is one that is placed over the internet and made possible by VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) technology. There are multiple ways to make internet calls, including:
- Through a landline phone with an analog telephone adapter (ATA) - A phone adapter connects a landline phone to a VoIP system to enable internet calls. Just plug your phone cable into the device and you’re good to go.
- From PC to PC - Download a VoIP-enabled program, set up an online account, and start making internet calls. Call quality depends heavily on your infrastructure and bandwidth, so it doesn’t always make for an ideal business phone system especially for small- and medium-sized businesses. Examples of this type of VoIP programs are Google Voice and Facebook Messaging.
- From PC to phone - Partner with a third-party software provider to connect your computer to a landline phone and make PC to phone calls. You’ll be able to leverage their VoIP services for a price, which is still considerably lower than what a traditional phone company would charge.
- Using softphones and apps - Connect to VoIP using any handheld device. This setup is ideal for businesses with a number of field or remote workers.
How does an internet phone work?
Internet phones leverage VoIP technology to enable phone calls. Hence, internet phones are also called VoIP phones. Here’s how internet phone calling works:
- The voice signals you generate are converted into data packets.
- These packets travel over the network and out through the internet until they reach their destination.
- VoIP converts the packets back into voice signals for the person on the other end to understand the message.
Internet phones can either be actual desk phones that look much like your regular landline phones or any VoIP-enabled devices connected to the internet, such as cell phones, laptops, or tablets.
Why use internet phone service?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of internet phone services against conventional phone lines
Conventional phone lines
- Requires expensive on-premises hardware
- Pricey and complex installations
- Requires customers to sign long-term contracts
- Upgrades and updates require additional costs
- Premium technical support is reserved for premium customers
- Specialized IT team needed for maintenance
- Phone service change requests require lengthy processes
Internet phone service
- Doesn’t need any hardware, ever
- Quick and free implementation
- No commitments or long-term contracts
- Upgrades and updates are always free
- Free premium technical support for all customers
- Self-manage the phone service from your mobile device
- Easily add or repurpose digital phone lines
RingCentral is the industry-leading provider of VoIP services
Improved business communications
Improve communications and collaborations with unlimited VoIP, conferencing, and team messaging. The call routing and call forwarding functions ensure that you do not miss anything, even international calls.
Mobile and flexible internet phone service
Access your phone service from anywhere and on any device. Call, text, and fax using your business phone number from your smartphone instead of using your personal number.
Quick phone service setup and implementation
Get your online phone service up and running in less than a day. Configure and customize system settings from your online account.
Secure business internet phone system
RingCentral secures all your communications during the whole IP transmission journey. All communications go through highly-encrypted networks and layers of authentication.
24/7 customer support
RingCentral is there for you from day one, helping you implement your cloud business phone system. You can contact our award-winning support team 24/7 for technical support, consultations, and best practice recommendations.
Best value plans and pricing
RingCentral gives your business an all-inclusive cloud communications system for one affordable price. No hidden or additional costs for advanced phone features. You get a single, itemized bill each month.
RingCentral MVP™* plans for your small business
PAY ANNUALLY AND SAVE UP TO 33%.
- No limit on number of users
- Business phone numbers in over 100 countries
- Unlimited internet fax
- Unlimited audio conferencing
- Video meetings with up to 100 participants
- Up to 24-hour meeting duration
- Quality-of-service reports
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Popular integrations including
Office 365, Google Workspace, Slack,
and more - 24/7 support
- Device status reports
- Device status alerts
- Unlimited storage***
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Not available
Essentials
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Standard
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Premium
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Ultimate
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Pricing
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Annually: $19.99/user/mo
Monthly: $29.99/user/mo |
Annually: $24.99/user/mo
Monthly: $34.99/user/mo |
Annually: $34.99/user/mo
Monthly: $44.99/user/mo |
Annually: $49.99/user/mo
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Business phone or toll-free numbers
One phone number for calling, team messaging, and video
meetings access.
Each user gets a dedicated phone number at no additional cost. Essentials edition doesn't include video meetings.
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Toll-free minutes
Toll-free minutes are per account regardless of number of lines. Additional minutes are always available for automatic purchase, which bill at 3.9¢/min.
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Unlimited calls within the US/Canada**
Unlimited calling/phone calls within the US and CA. Plus, choose from affordable and convenient international calling plans that fit your business. Terms and conditions may apply.
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Unlimited Business SMS**
Use your business phone number to send unlimited one-to-one or group SMS/MMS.
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Voicemail-to-text
Automatically convert voicemail messages into text form so users can screen messages easily and respond to the most important call first.
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Visual voicemail and voicemail-to-email
Access voicemail messages from your desk and mobile phones, email, desktop app, and online account.
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Team messaging
Collaborate more effectively with colleagues, clients, and contractors with team messaging, task assignment, calendar sharing, and more. Also, utilize out-of-the-box integrations with Jira, Asana, Box, Google Drive, OneDrive, and more.
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Document sharing
Access documents and files stored on your computer or your Google Drive, Box, OneDrive, and Dropbox accounts and easily share them with your team members.
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Call management and phone system
administration Sophisticated call management, enabling you to configure your phone system across the entire company, regardless of location or device. Optimize communication with custom admin and user configurations online or using the mobile app.
Call management features include:
*Not available with Essentials.
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Mobile apps for iOS and Android
Whether you're an Apple or Android user, you can use your smartphones and tablets to make and receive calls, join and host meetings,
team message coworkers and partners, send and receive faxes and texts, set up and join conferences, and configure phone system settings, notifications, and voicemail.
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High-definition (HD) voice
To consistently deliver the highest HD quality possible, RingCentral utilizes the Opus Interactive codec for audio and video, as well as the G.722 codec for audio.
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Call log reports
Get a complete record of all your inbound and outbound calls and faxes. View the name of the caller, the number or extension dialed, as well as the time, date, and duration of the call.
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Phone rental options: desk and
conference phones Rent any desk phone or conference phone for a low monthly price.
Contact sales for details and pricing.
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Unlimited internet fax
Send and receive faxes from your computer, mobile device, Microsoft Outlook, cloud storage providers (such as Dropbox), and more.
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Unlimited audio conferencing
Host an unlimited number of audio conference calls, with up to 1,000 attendees per conference. Each user gets unique host and participant access codes.
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Video meetings and participants
Hold video meetings with screen sharing, in-meeting public and private chat capabilities—anytime, anywhere, on any device.
Maximum number of participants varies by the video platform:
Premium with RingCentral Video (up to 200) Standard with RingCentral Video (up to 100) |
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High-definition (HD) video
RingCentral delivers crystal-clear HD quality video and voice.
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Quality-of-service reports
Gain the ability to proactively review overall RingCentral system health and diagnose quality issues impacting users. A holistic overview of quality measured by location, endpoint, codec, ISP, and more enables
easier monitoring and faster troubleshooting.
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Popular integrations including Office 365,
Google Workspace, Slack, and more
RingCentral offers the largest ecosystem of integration apps in the communications and collaboration space to maximize productivity and efficiency. Get integrations for bots, AI, analytics, archiving, automation, productivity, and more.
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24/7 support
Unlimited chat and phone support.
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Multi-level auto attendant
Answer callers automatically with customized greetings, and ensure every call is directed to the right employee or department.
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Professional implementation
Get the most out of RingCentral with a portfolio of professional and personalized services, ranging from planning, designing, and implementation to project management, ongoing support, and consulting.
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Call recording
Automatic call recording: Set your RingCentral phone system to automatically record inbound and outbound calls for individual users or inbound calls for departments.
On-demand call recording: Allows Users to manually record phone calls anytime using an IP Phone provisioned with RingCentral, Forwarding Number, or RingCentral Phone for Mobile.
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On-demand
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Automatic
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Automatic
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Compatible with RingCentral Rooms™ (add-on)
Turn any space into a conference room.
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Single Sign-on
Users can log in to RingCentral automatically with their corporate credentials. Reduce the IT cost of assisting in password recovery and benefit from a central authentication point that securely accesses your RingCentral service from any device.
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Multi-site admin and management
Get the flexibility to manage and support your branch offices based on their unique operational needs.
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Up to 8-digit extensions with site codes
Simplified intra-site dialing for large multi-site customers.
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Hot desking
Allows users to log in to shared phones to access their own RingCentral extensions, voicemail and greetings, and other features.
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Advanced call handling including whisper, barge, and more
Advanced call management controls (monitor, whisper, barge, takeover) to allow authorized users to listen in on employee calls with clients to monitor the conversation, provide coaching, and facilitate discussion.
Other features include overflow call queues, user groups, and role-based access control with customized roles/permissions.
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Real-time analytics
Gain real-time insights into your RingCentral system and gather business-relevant data, alerts, and reporting metrics.
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Popular CRM integrations with Salesforce, Zendesk, and more
Bring the functions and features of RingCentral MVP into your business apps such as Salesforce, Zendesk, Microsoft Dynamics, ServiceNow, etc.
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Industry-specific integrations with Canvas, Smarsh, and more
Bring the functions and features of RingCentral MVP into your vertical's business apps such as Canvas, Smarsh, etc.
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Developer platform and custom integrations
RingCentral APIs let you create your own custom applications and seamlessly integrate business communications into your key business processes, so you can automate workflows, drive efficiency, and gain valuable
insight from communications data.
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Developer Portal
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Device status reports
Monitor hard phone registration status globally and gain visibility into your devices' history.
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Device status alerts
Set up automated monitoring rules and receive notifications when devices are offline.
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Unlimited storage***
Store an unlimited* amount of documents, spreadsheets, presentation files, contracts,
invoices, images, videos, and recordings.
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How can an all-in-one internet phone service help your business?
RingCentral answers the question “What is an internet phone able to do for your business?” by giving you an easy-to-manage business communications system with all the features your organization needs.
In the past, you would have had to get different providers for different communication channels like voice calls, fax, PBX, and conferencing tools. As a result, the business is beset by different challenges including maintenance and repairs of different systems, paying different bills for different providers, and worst, trying to have different communications solutions work with each other. Imagine how hard it was for businesses running a call center or those with remote workers!
Fortunately, there is now a solution that meets most, if not all, your business communication needs under one unified platform. If you want to have a system that includes everything you need, then subscribing to RingCentral is the best way to go.
What business phone functionality will you get from your RingCentral internet phone service?
This all-in-one communications solution is able to deliver the following technologies under one platform:
Voice calls
With VoIP making internet calls possible, you’ll enjoy affordable nationwide calling as well as international calls and toll-free calls for businesses.
Cloud-hosted PBX
Businesses also need to manage all incoming calls, and the hosted PBX system solves that problem. It has several features that make it easier for organizations to handle each call, including
- Auto-attendant
- Inbound and outbound caller ID
- Call screening
- Call blocking
- Call recording
- Call waiting
- Advanced call routing
- Enhanced call forwarding
Businesses can even set up different answering rules for different times of the day. For example, all phone calls during business hours are answered and routed while calls after hours can be sent straight to voicemail.
Audio and video conference
This is especially useful for companies with mobile employees or multiple locations. It lets you and your team host and join audio or video meetings from anywhere through their laptops, cell phones, or any mobile devices as long as they have a stable and high-speed internet connection. It can be used to conduct interactive webinars as well.
Team messaging
Through its acquisition of RingCentral Video, RingCentral is able to provide users with team messaging capabilities that can also act as a powerful collaboration tool. Aside from its messaging functions, it also serves as a repository of tasks. It also allows users to create groups and teams for certain projects. But even with its useful functions, it is not a boring tool at all; use it to send emojis and even create your own company memes.
Business app integrations
RingCentral also integrates with the different business apps you use every day. This allows companies to add communication capabilities to their favorite tools like Salesforce, Google for Work, and Office 365, among others. You can even integrate it to your own in-house software using RingCentral APIs.
The right vendor should be able to assess your business needs and provide solutions accordingly. You don’t want to go to a company whose specialty is residential VoIP and whose list of compatible phones are mostly home phones meant solely for voice communication and with no capacity to handle business phone system must-haves such as call transfers and the like.
With RingCentral, your VoIP phones are so much more than mere communication tools. All the features above are included in one internet phone service, priced under one bill, with no hidden costs, and with package details clearly communicated. That is why RingCentral is trusted by more than 400,000 companies around the world.
Here are a few scenarios to consider for when you’re searching for the right VoIP solutions partner:
- A potential provider on your list may have a favorable unlimited plan for calling, but lacks features important for your operations. For instance, you have a number of remote staff and need calls forwarded to mobile devices to remain clear and echo-free. Keep this in mind as you embark on your search.
- If you intend to use conference phones and cordless phones, look into companies whose services are compatible with a long list of top-quality VoIP phones you can choose from.
- The quality of internet calls should be a top concern. Note that your staff uses the same internet connection for downloading, HD streaming, and so on. A good VoIP service provider will ensure you have adequate bandwidth and a strong infrastructure to perform all tasks without a hitch.
- Perhaps you need call center software or heavily rely on CRM integration so agents can better handle every outgoing and incoming call. RingCentral has some of the best options for you.
- There’s no better way to test the effectiveness of any technology than by taking it for a spin. RingCentral offers a free trial to give you a real-world feel for how their products work.
VoIP is such a powerful technology for businesses. There are even households that have ditched landline phones, opting for just cell phones or VoIP-enabled devices. So, give your company a competitive edge by partnering with nothing less than the best in internet phone services for business.
How much is a landline per month?
Monthly fees can go as high as $100 per phone line, depending on the phone carrier. Since landline phones rely on dedicated copper wires, adding more lines requires additional hardware, which in turn means additional costs. That’s $500 in your monthly bill if you have five lines. Ask any phone provider about it for more information.
Compare that to the monthly costs you’ll pay for an internet phone system, which can start as low as $19.99 with a reputable provider like RingCentral. And because VoIP phones rely on the internet instead of public-switched telephone networks or mobile networks, they can support multiple lines, depending on the strength of your internet connection.
What else makes an online phone service cheaper than legacy systems?
There are many other ways internet phone services let you save money. Here are a few more of them:
- Hosted VoIP providers typically don’t require setup fees
- You don’t need to pay extra for maintenance, repairs, and upgrades.
- VoIP uses the internet so international and long-distance calls are much cheaper.
- Bringing your own device to work? VoIP supports BYOB initiatives, which means you can use your Samsung Galaxy s10 or Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max to access company platforms.
Talk to a potential vendor about their phone plans and discover lower priced options fit with your business needs. For instance, if your business requires constant communication with your offices in the USA and Canada, note that there are companies like RingCentral that offers an international calling plan with unlimited calls within the said countries, even Puerto Rico.
Why get your internet phone service from a reputable VoIP provider?
Not all business phone service providers are equal when it comes to the level and quality of their services.
There is a reason why RingCentral is considered the industry leader when it comes to business communications. RingCentral changes the way businesses communicate and collaborate with an internet phone service that is designed to keep employees connected, boost productivity, share knowledge, and improve customer relationships
With a cloud-based platform that has already surpassed what a traditional system can do, RingCentral has set its sights on providing a complete business internet phone service that is unmatched by its competitors.
What makes RingCentral stand out from the other providers?
RingCentral lets you save more and stands above the competition with these advantages:
- A unified communications solution – RingCentral has evolved its service from simple business VoIP calling, fax, and cloud PBX, to a unified communications solution that meets most, if not all, business communications needs. Aside from a call management system with advanced phone calling features like auto-attendant and answering rules, its VoIP services provide audio and video conferencing capabilities, which are useful for companies with mobile employees and multiple sites. RingCentral Office subscribers also get a full-featured team collaboration tool that lets you create groups, set tasks, and track progress.
- A highly secure and reliable service – RingCentral has Tier 1 geographically dispersed data centers to ensure redundancy. This is to make sure that there are no service disruptions. In addition to this, data transmissions are also heavily encrypted between endpoints of the network to ensure that internet calls or other data passing through the service are safe in transit or while at rest
- A highly mobile solution – This virtual phone system can be accessed through intuitively designed apps so users can always stay connected to the office wherever they are. Download the right app by choosing from the RingCentral desktop app for PC or Mac, or the RingCentral mobile app for either Android or iOS.
- Open APIs and integrations – RingCentral also plays well with other productivity apps. The service easily integrates to popular business apps like Salesforce, Office 365, and Google for Work. Additionally, RingCentral has open APIs that will allow your own developers to integrate digital voice, team messaging, SMS and MMS, and fax into your home-grown key apps and workflows.
The advantages business VoIP provides are highlighted by top-tier internet phone providers like RingCentral. Sign up now and learn how the company bests other internet service providers and why it’s trusted by many a business customer around the globe.