The latest in the communication industry is the convergence of the telephone and the computer users. This convergence is seen as the next best thing to happen for advanced and speedy communication facilities in the coming years. Known by the name of enhanced telephony, the concept is based on the provision of communication facilities removing all barriers of location and telephone networks. The enhanced telephony is also known by the name of Voice over Internet Protocol and it has the capability to provide instant access to key data and provide the users the means to opt where, when and how to be reached.
The enhanced telephony system is highly beneficial for businesses, enterprises, carriers, governments as it provides greater functionality over the traditional telephone systems and that too at a much lower cost. This helps the various organizations using the enhanced telephony systems to focus on the other more important aspects of business. This technology, along with some other salient features, helps in the management of incoming calls.
The enhanced telephony provides certain benefits over the traditional telephone systems. It eliminates the need of a telephone network for communication but connects all the telephone stations around the world. This means instant communication through enhanced and converged network, ease of use, flexible conferencing facilities and instant web access. All this is possible because of the higher processing power of the PC over the conventional telephone system. This surely increases the capability of the telephone and the user now has access to different data and higher processing power.
With all these benefits and advantages, one would surely want to know how the system of enhanced telephony works. The user interface of ET or enhanced telephony works on the combination of the computer and telecommunication devices. The ET interface is present on a computer and with its peripheral devices, like speakers and monitors the user can get audio and visual information about an incoming call.
The enhanced telephony concept is highly useful in areas where there is severe congestion and the networks are choked, which results in queues for callers. One such area, which can implement the enhanced telephony system, is the NHS which presently uses the 084 numbers. The 084 numbers are non-geographic numbers, which can be obtained for private use and are not specific to any particular location. The NHS uses the 0844 number which is charged at a low call rate. However, callers complain of high call rates being charged by service providers. Moreover, during the busy hours, the users either get an engaged tone or have to wait through long queues, increasing the call rate substantially.