dmNews January 12: Testers, VoIP Myths and a New Product
Happy New Year! In this month’s dmBiz: a mythbusting look at VoIP, big thanks to our Super-Testers, and first hints of a new product on the horizon. Read on for more…
Thank you to all our super-testers!
On Wednesday 18th January 2012 a group of dmClub super-testers
gathered at dmClub
Towers for a sneak preview of our new product. It was a great afternoon
– a demo, lots of fantastic feedback and questions and a great
opportunity for us to learn more about what it’s like for users
encountering our top-secret new product for the very first
time. After an intensive period of development we’re pretty familiar
with the product and hearing some fresh perspectives from real users
was very valuable.
Many thanks to the super-testers who took part – we hope you enjoyed the day! We’ll be running further testing events in the future, so if you’d like to take part in a future event drop us a line and join our community of super-testers!
Want to join our testing community?
We had a fantastic afternoon with the dmClub
Super-Testers on the 18th and are planning to run more testing events
in the future. Want to take part? Curious to see what a telecoms
company looks like from the inside? We'll be running more testing
events as time goes on, such as
- Focus groups
- Remote testing
- Long-term testing
Fancy joining us? If you'd like to be part of our testing community, and receive sneak previews, rewards and more email Mary: mary.harrington@dmclub.net.
5 things you thought you knew about VoIP
What do you know about VoIP? VoIP stands for Voice
over IP, or a method of sending voice communications over the internet
rather than the ‘traditional’ (PSTN) telephone network. Over the next
few months we’ll be running a series of short articles introducing VoIP
telephony –starting with a bit of mythbusting.
1) Myth: Very few people use VoIP for telephony
Fact: Much of the backbone of general telecoms is run over VoIP these days. VoIP services such as Skype have become hugely popular. In fact, lots of people use VoIP without realising that’s what it is!
2) Myth: The person you are talking to needs to be using VoIP as well
Fact: Media gateways, also commonly referred to as VoIP gateways, are devices which bridge PSTN telephone networks and equipment to VoIP telephone networks and vice versa. So the person you are talking to does not need to be using VoIP as well – provided you use a VoIP service such as dmClub's that includes a VoIP gateway.
3) Myth: You can't use 'normal' PSTN lines and VoIP at the same time
Fact: With the right service, you can combine VoIP and PSTN and even use both simultaneously – meaning there’s no need to install a whole new system to take advantage of the cost savings of VoIP!
4) Myth: VoIP call quality is never as good as PSTN
Fact: VoIP call quality can be compromised factors such as a highly compressed codec (the way the sound is packaged for transmission), a poor internet connection or a low quality microphone. But with the right equipment VoIP can be the same or better quality as PSTN: for example dmClub uses the same codec to transmit VoIP as PSTN calls, meaning you don’t need to compromise on quality.
5) Myth: You are tied to a computer if you’re using VoIP
Fact: There are lots of ways of making VoIP calls. You can use a dedicated VoIP handset, a DECT/VoIP hybrid, an analogue telephone adaptor (ATA – a device that adapts a ‘regular’ PSTN handset for VoIP) or a ‘softphone’ program that runs on your PC along with a headset. You certainly don’t have to be tied to the computer unless that suits your needs!
Want to know more about VoIP? Look out for our jargon-busting articles over the next few months.
New product coming soon!
As we've mentioned, we’re in the
last stages of developing a new product. It’s now getting close to
launch and we’re pretty excited!
It's still top secret so we can't tell you very much yet, but watch this space for updates...