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If you’re looking at VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) or UCaaS (unified communications as a service) solutions for your business, you might have come across Zoom Phone.

And if you want to look at business phone systems other than Zoom Phone, the good news is there are many agile, scalable, and flexible phone systems out there—all of which allow you to make voice calls over the Internet instead of a regular phone line.

While Zoom Phone is a big player in the VoIP market, other competitors provide similar benefits at a variety of price points. In this resource, you’ll find everything you need to know about the best Zoom Phone alternatives on the market today—skip ahead if you like:

But before we compare the alternatives to Zoom Phone, let’s first look at some features to pay attention to if you’re shopping for a phone system.

8 essential(-ish) cloud-based phone system features to look for in a Zoom phone alternative

With so many cloud-based phone systems out there, how can you tell what the best Zoom alternatives are!

Here are a few essential features to consider as a starting point. You may not need all of them, but you should at the very least be aware of them.

1. The ability to keep your existing phone number(s)

If your business already has phone numbers, then your phone system should be able to let you keep those numbers by porting them over.

Dialpad, for example, will help you with the process and make sure that even if you do experience downtime, it’s minimal and causes the least disruption possible to your business and customers.

2. Call forwarding to mobile

You’ll need to be able to divert calls from landline to mobile. You’ll also want to be able to forward and divert calls from mobile devices.

Traditionally, making changes to things like your call forwarding took quite a bit of work, but it should be easy with any decent Zoom Phone alternative.

For example, to add a forwarding number to Dialpad, all you have to do is navigate to Your Settings. Then, under Your Devices, simply select Add New > Add a Forwarding Number. Then enter your chosen number and select Verify.

3. Call transferring and call routing

Call transfer is a way to direct inbound calls to another phone or communications system. On traditional desk phones, this would have been done using a physical call transfer button. With Dialpad, you can transfer your calls directly to another person or department right from your active call screen:

With the right call distribution system, you’ll also be able to route calls to agents based on some of the following criteria:

4. Online meetings

This isn’t a “must-have,” but for many businesses, it’s very important. If you have video meetings with clients or teammates on a regular basis, then you’re probably using a video conferencing tool.

Ideally, your phone system should include a high-quality or HD video meeting feature. That way, you don’t have to download as many apps (or pay as many subscription fees every month).

For example, Dialpad has built in video conferencing software and messaging, all in one app:

And if you need video conferencing, then you may as well look into a screen sharing feature as well. For teams that need to review designs or mockups regularly in video conferences, being able to share your screen is essential for collaboration.

In Dialpad, you have the option of sharing a tab or window, or your whole screen:

5. Real-time transcriptions

Again, this isn’t a crucial feature to have in a business phone, but if you have lots of customer calls or interviews over the phone, it might be helpful to have real-time meeting transcriptions so that your team can review these calls later on.

Usually, the phone system will have some kind of artificial intelligence or AI engine that powers a transcription feature like this.

For instance, Dialpad’s Voice Intelligence (Vi) can transcribe not only your calls in real time, but also your voicemails. Also known as visual voicemail, this feature lets you read your voicemails, forward them to teammates, and more—without having to listen to them:

6. A desktop and mobile app

Not everyone on your team will use an Apple or PC. Maybe some of your clients don’t use iPhone and prefer Android. But whether they use iOS or Windows, your phone system should work with it!

What’s even better is a browser-based platform, which means you can make and join calls from a web browser like Chrome. This way, a client won’t have to download an app just to join a conference call—which comes in handy when urgent meetings come up and you need to meet now:

7. Customizable caller ID

This is an important functionality for businesses: call screening and caller ID functionalities.

The best cloud phone service providers will offer customizable caller ID options that allow you to choose what your caller ID shows up as:

[image of choosing caller ID]

With Dialpad, you can choose what phone number or name your call shows on the screen when you call someone.

8. Useful integrations and APIs

Most cloud phone providers offer a range of integrations or the option to go open-source if you need to build something custom.

Just be aware that not all service providers are going to offer the same level of integration coverage. Before choosing your provider, make sure that they have the integrations you need (especially if you’re already using a specific tool that you absolutely need an integration for).

Generally, you should at the very least consider integrations with your collaboration tools (like Microsoft Teams), sales engagement software, and customer service software or your CRM—like Salesforce:

The 15 best Zoom Phone alternatives

Okay. Time to look at your options. If you don’t want to use Zoom Phone, here are the best VoIP and UCaaS alternatives you can choose from—many of which are just as good, or better, than Zoom Phone.

As a side note, we also tried to choose more budget-friendly options on this list, since Zoom Phone is not an expensive option and we’re looking at, well, alternatives for it. That’s why more enterprise-focused options like RingCentral aren’t on the list.

Top overall Zoom Phone alternatives

1. Dialpad

Dialpad stands out from other competitors on this list because of its far-reaching international presence.

With a cloud-first approach and a unique split cloud architecture that makes scaling and setup incredibly easy, Dialpad is designed to be super flexible and versatile. Though we may be a bit biased, it’s one of, if not the best business phone systems for businesses with an eye for international growth.

You can add a new phone number and also manage phone numbers in your account easily in a few clicks without IT help:

And if you need to add toll-free numbers, you can do that yourself too, with really clear information about pricing before you make anything official:

Dialpad’s plans start at $15 per month per user if you sign up for an annual plan, and $20 per month per user on a month-to-month basis.

That gives you unlimited calling and unlimited SMS/MMS, along with all the basic phone features you need like off-hours routing, call recordings, and more.

If you’re looking for a Zoom Phone alternative, you can try out Dialpad’s free trial and play around with the different functionalities for yourself. Here are just a few of them:

• Unlimited calling within your country and the United States and Canada

• Unlimited Short Messaging Service (SMS) and Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) in the U.S. and Canada

• Voicemail transcription

• Google Workspace (G Suite) and Office integrations

• Transfer, hold, and mute call controls

• Customized voicemail greetings‌

• Custom routing and IVR menu

• Toll-free number support

• End-to-end encryption

Pricing:

Standard paid plans start at $15 USD/mo/user

Security features:

• ‌SOC2® Type II and GDPR-compliant

• Member of the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) Security, Trust and Assurance Registry (STAR)

• HIPAA-compliant

• Customizable retention policy

• Admins can control access to data

• Data ownership and reporting

• Enterprise-level encryption on calls and data stored in the cloud

But don’t take our word for it...

2. Google Voice

Google Voice is a cloud-based phone service that lets you create a new number (or use an existing number) then transfer it to Google.

It’s one of the first options that many small businesses consider because it’s generally perceived as being startup-friendly, but one big drawback to Google Voice is that the service is only available in the U.S.

If your business is already a big Google Workspace or Google Meet user or only has customers and teammates in the U.S., then Google Voice could be a good option.

Features include:

• Sending voicemail and message transcripts to your email inbox

• Protection from spam calls and messages

• Screening of calls before answering

• Personalized voicemail greetings

• Free directory services

Pricing: Rates start at $10 per user per month.

3. Ooma Business Phone

Ooma’s focus is on delivering VoIP phone service to smaller businesses (and even residential homes). ‌Like with Dialpad, you could configure analog phones that your business is already using to work with Ooma.

And also like with Dialpad, you can send faxes with Ooma, a feature that Zoom Phone doesn't support at the moment.

Switching from a phone call to a video conference requires a subscription to a higher-tier plan. The same applies if you want to make calls from Ooma's desktop app. Support for international calling requires companies to sign up for a plan that bills by the minute.

Features include:

• On-hold music

• Extension-by-extension dialing

• Call reports

• Fax reports

• Call transfer

• Call routing rules

Pricing: Plans start at $19.95 per month per user

Other Zoom Phone alternatives for businesses on a budget

4. Evolve IP Cloud Phone System

Evolve is a unified communications phone system targeted primarily at enterprise-level teams, workspaces, and contact centers.

With Evolve, you can video, chat, conference, and integrate with third-party apps that your team is already using.

Features include:

• Direct chat

• SSO security

• Business SMS

• Video conferencing app

• HD audio

• File sharing

• AI speech analytics

Pricing: Business plans start at $2 per user per month

5. Acefone

Acefone is a hosted PBX provider that offers a business phone system, though it seems like they’re targeted at either UK-based or US-based customers.

With Acefone, you get a hosted phone system, free phone number, and a range of contact center solutions.

Features include:

• Detailed reports

• Easy deployment

• CRM integrations

• Call analytics

• Automatic updates

Pricing: Basic plans start at £4.99 per user per month

6. VND PBX

VND PBX is a virtual business phone system, and one thing to note for VND PBX is that they have plans for Australian & New Zealand and/or United States & Canada.

If your business is outside of those, you might need to look elsewhere.

It’s also a PBX business phone system, which will be a bit limiting in terms of regular upgrades and installation and setup. (You can learn more about that here.)

Features:

• Toll-free numbers

• Vanity numbers

• Call control

• Automated receptionist

• Call queues

Pricing: Prices start at $29 per user per month

7. CloudTalk

CloudTalk is a cloud-based phone system targeted especially at sales and support teams.

CloudTalk offers calling features and integrations with popular tools. Even though inbound calls are free as part of your monthly subscription plan, they do charge you by the minute for outbound calls (which are free even with Dialpad’s least expensive plan).

You also don’t get SMS messages with their Starter plan...

Features include:

• Call queuing

• Call recording

• Voicemail

• Number porting

• Toll-free numbers

• International numbers

Pricing: Pricing starts at $20 per user per month billed annually

8. ClarityTel

ClarityTel offers cloud-based voice, fax, and advanced IP solutions for business. It lists different VoIP solutions as well as features like SIP trunking and live answering services on the website, but it’s presented in a bit of a confusing way and it’s not exactly clear what you get at each pricing tier unless you get in touch with them directly.

Features include:

• Unclear—get in touch with their sales team for more information

Pricing: Pricing plans start at $19.99 each per month for up to nine lines. (If you add more lines, it can go down to $14.99.)

9. OnSIP

Hosted VoIPOnSIP's cloud-based VoIP phone system is another option to look at, though the caveat is it’s quite expensive compared to the other alternatives on this list.

It does have a video chat or video calling option (which you’d also get with Dialpad on the least expensive plan), and integrates with business favorites like HubSpot and Zendesk.

The disadvantage with OnSIP is that your account isn't automatically configured for international calls. You have to make a special request to the company to enable extended international dialing. OnSIP also doesn't have an online fax option, so you’d need to sign up with a third-party company if you’re in an industry that still uses fax.

The pricing is also quite complex—from call recordings to inbound calls to even just porting phone numbers, you’ll get dinged with fees for many small things (that you’d get for free with Dialpad, for instance).

Features include:

• Three auto attendants
• Three ring groups
• One dial-by-name directory
• One call recording user

Pricing: Pay-as-you-go plan starts at $49.95 per month

10. Vonage Business Communications

Vonage is one of the most well known business phone providers out there, and it has an all-in-one cloud communications platform for companies that includes phone services, team messaging, and meetings.

However! Vonage does charge extra for things like call recording and visual voicemail, which—you guessed it—comes free with some of the other options on this list, like Dialpad.

Features include:

• Paperless fax service

• Ability to port over your existing number

• 99.999% uptime

Pricing: Prices start at $19.99 per month per user for a mobile-only plan.

11. Mitel MiCloud Connect

Mitel MiCloud Connect is another relatively well-known unified communication as a service (UCaaS) platform. Being a system built on traditional PBX technology though, that makes it not as flexible or scalable as VoIP and UCaas options.

The most basic plan also doesn’t come with call recording, Salesforce integration, or voicemail transcription.

Features include:

• Instant messaging

• Contact center tools

• Screen sharing

• Audio and video conferencing platform

Pricing: Essentials plan starts at $20.99 per month

12. Telzio

Telzio is a business phone system that has one big difference compared to most of the other VoIP and UCaaS options on this list: it doesn’t charge you by user.

Instead, you pay according to your usage. Yep, they charge you by the minute (and by the number of SMS texts you send.)

For some businesses—we’d argue very few—this might actually work out in your favor, but for most businesses that are on the phone every day, this would probably end up costing you more.

Features include:

• Call routing

• Live call data

Pricing: Pay per usage pricing on top of $50 base price per month

‌13. VirtualPBX

Virtual PBX is a business phone system offering unlimited minutes, text messaging, and video conferencing. Virtual PBX allows users to use softphone apps to turn internet-enabled devices like mobiles and laptops into a virtual phone system. Again though, even though this is an evolved form of PBX technology, it's still not on the same level in terms of flexibility and not as advanced as a true born-in-the-cloud VoIP solution.

Features include:

• Automated attendant

• Custom greetings

• Call reporting

• 3,000+ integrations

• 24/7 support

Pricing: Pricing starts at $14.99 per user per month

14. Vonix Flex

Vonix Flex combines your team communications and customer communications on one platform. Flex allows users to send and receive multimedia communications from any internet enabled device. That includes calls, texts, pictures, videos, and social media messages.

Features include:

• Team chat

• Business phone

• Business SMS

• Business MMS

• Group text

• Message transfer

• Analytics

Pricing: Standard pricing starts at $19.99 per user per month plus taxes and fees

15. Spoke Phone

Spoke Phone helps small business users turn their mobile devices into business phones. Spoke offers business phone solutions for small business and custom plans for larger, enterprise-scale organizations. For small teams, the Small Business Bundle offers unlimited free calling for up to four users.

Features include:

• Auto attendant

• Audio library

• Call queues

• Conference calls

• Call transfer

• Voicemail transfer

Pricing: Pricing starts at $99 for one to four users per month

FAQs

What is a cloud phone system?

Lob your phone into the skies and you’ve got a cloud phone system, right? Not exactly.

A cloud phone system is basically a telephone system that allows you to make calls over the internet. Voice signals are broken down into bite-sized digital packets, then sent to the recipient and decoded in real-time.

All you’ll need to use a cloud phone is a Wi-Fi connection and any internet-enabled device like your personal cell phone, laptop (Apple Mac, Linux, Windows), softphone, tablet, or VoIP-enabled desk phone.

In fact, chances are you’ve encountered VoIP before. Popular mobile apps like Whatsapp, Skype, Google Hangouts, and Zoho are all powered by VoIP technology.

What is Zoom Phone?

Zoom is probably best known for video meetings and became massively popular because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but Zoom Phone is a cloud business phone solution that’s used to make calls using VoIP technology.

There are currently four different plans available for Zoom Phone. Each charges a monthly fee per user. The basic metered plan provides a U.S. phone number and enables extension-to-extension calls from multiple apps. Outbound calls are charged by the minute based on Zoom Phone's latest rates.

If you want features like toll-free numbers, international calling, and extra phone numbers, you'll have to request them as an add-on service and pay an extra fee. You can purchase a Zoom Phone Hardware-as-a-Service (HaaS) plan to handle the deployment of your VoIP phone system.

Why should businesses consider Dialpad as their phone system?

If you’re not yet convinced of the magical powers of VoIP—and specifically Dialpad—then here are some key benefits that might be of interest to businesses.

It’s more feature-rich

With a cloud phone, you’ll be getting a lot more than just standard calling.

VoIP phone systems offer tons of features like instant messaging, whiteboard, call forwarding, transcriptions, and auto attendants. All of these key features are very useful for improving call handling efficiency.

For example, Dialpad’s Virtual Receptionist offers users a full-featured auto attendant to help streamline customer experiences with custom call routing options.

When a dial-in caller dials your mainline, Virtual Receptionist will be there to walk them through a list of relevant departments.

It unifies your communications

Instead of having your phone, voicemail, messaging, fax, and video conferencing all running separately, you can have everything under one roof! No longer will you have to flip between Outlook and Bluejeans or an online fax app and Cisco WebEx.

Unified communications systems—and Dialpad in particular—can consolidate all of those communication channels into one app (and often, one monthly subscription bill, which should make your Finance team happy).

It makes it easier for your team to collaborate

Some cloud phone systems even come with a free video conferencing solution. With Dialpad, you can not only make phone calls, but also collaborate over video conferencing along with full audio and video controls, document sharing, and more.

It helps you expand internationally

Because cloud-based calling is so much cheaper than landline long-distance communications, you’ll finally have the freedom—and budget—to go international.

With a cloud phone system, you won’t incur quite as expensive long-distance charges for placing or receiving telephone calls. Dialpad users enjoy international calling at some of the lowest rates.

It’s more flexible

Need to hire 100 new people quickly and set them up with a business phone? You can do that with Dialpad in minutes. Need to make seasonal adjustments and remove users? It’s easy to do that too. As we mentioned earlier, that’s one of the biggest benefits of having a cloud phone system—you don’t need to spend hours on the phone with a Support team or hire an expensive IT consultant to make small changes to your account.

Voice Intelligence (Vi)

Who cares about AI, right. What does it even mean? Well, with Dialpad, it means you get functionalities like real-time speech-to-text transcriptions for your conference calls, live sentiment analysis of your customer calls, and more. It’s like having a secretary that doesn’t slack and is always there taking notes for you on all your calls.

It integrates with tools you’re already using

When you have a VoIP phone system that runs on the cloud, you’ll be able to benefit from tons of additional efficiencies through integrations.

Already using a CRM? Dialpad lets you make calls right from Salesforce and Hubspot with its integrations. (Check out all of Dialpad’s integrations here.)

It’s much more cost-efficient

Cloud phone systems are almost always lower in cost than traditional phone systems, which are expensive to install and maintain—especially if you need multiple lines, call routing, and voicemail options.

With a cloud-phone system, calls are made over the internet. All you’ll be paying for is your internet use and your monthly subscription charge. That means no more minute-to-minute call pricing. (Watch out for cloud phone systems that have a “free version”—often, they’ll add fees and other add-ons that do cost money on top of the “free” base price.)

What are the differences between Zoom Phone and Zoom Meetings?

The biggest difference between Zoom Meetings and Zoom Phone is that Zoom Meetings is designed for video calls and webinars (and the occasional Zoom party, too—quiz night anyone?), while Zoom Phone is for making business calls and uses VoIP technology to do that.

Some of Zoom Meetings’ features include:

• HD video and audio

• Call recording

• Screen sharing

• Calendar sync with Outlook, Gmail, and iCal

Looking for a Zoom Phone alternative?

If you're considering Zoom, then you're probably already looking for something that's cloud-based and not tethered to a server room in an office or clunky hardware.

Out of all the business phone options on the list, Dialpad is your best bet in terms of scalability, advanced features, reliability, and constant innovation. But like we said—the best way to know for sure is to take all the free trials for these different VoIP (and non-VoIP) options for a spin.

See All 136 Product Reviews

• Meetings are becoming easier and easier to organize

  • Reviewer Role: CTO
  • Company Size: 3B - 10B USD
  • Industry: Services Industry

  If you can access the Internet using a smartphone, or tablet (but not a device with a camera, microphone, or speaker) or multiple enviroments, you can easily hold a voice and video sessions. In comparison to other tools, the connection is relatively stable. Even if the ......

• One of the best cloud phone system

  • Reviewer Role: Infrastructure and Operations
  • Company Size: 500M - 1B USD
  • Industry: Transportation Industry

  Zoom phone system is the single and best platform for all phone, meeting, and chat needs for any organization. This is the best hybrid phone system. We are using this for a long time at my organization and after using this I must say I can work more effectively and be able to assist ......

• Great progress in one to multiple contact

  • Reviewer Role: Product Management/Marketing
  • Company Size: 500M - 1B USD
  • Industry: Communications Industry

  The feature of Zoom Phone is the vast number of people who may attend online conferences. The free version is available for up to 100 users. The free edition of the other resources is, by far, the best, given that (before appears.in) you have up to 4 people and Skype has up to 10 ......

• Zoom - Simple yet powerful

  • Reviewer Role: Sales and Marketing
  • Company Size: Gov't/PS/ED 5,000 - 50,000 Employees
  • Industry: Education Industry

  Zoom phone is easy to use and it also consumes less data compared to other online conferencing platforms. It also manages to stream video on less resolution even if bandwidth is low. The UI is very minimal and is easy to use. It is very handy and also we can do over the ......

• Good quality even after fluctuating data

  • Reviewer Role: Digital Marketing
  • Company Size: 250M - 500M USD
  • Industry: Media Industry

  Zoom phone is being used in my company since 2019 and it has become handier in 2020 since everyone is working remotely. The best thing about this platform is that it provides a good quality of audio and video even when your internet is fluctuating, unlike other similar ......

• The greatest training tool in the industry

  • Reviewer Role: CEO
  • Company Size: 3B - 10B USD
  • Industry: Services Industry

  It is used for online seminars with members from groups of 10 to more than 100 participants. MUTE could not run entirely on the standard ZOOM meeting, and the screen was stopped by people, and so it was difficult to work smoothly, but MUTE can only fully implement the ......

• Zoom Phone

  • Reviewer Role: R&D/Product Development
  • Company Size: 3B - 10B USD
  • Industry: Manufacturing Industry

  As in this pandemic situation for companies there was very difficult situation to distribute work and for communication due to work from home, but zoom comes ahead t fill this gap.i think it is the best solution for companies or even student for learning, discussion sessions, ......

• High quality calls even during slow internet

  • Reviewer Role: Digital Marketing
  • Company Size: 500M - 1B USD
  • Industry: Communications Industry

  Zoom phone is one of the best tools in the market, especially during this covid period. The ability to do video conferencing irrespective of the device, the place is what any person wants. Unlike other apps, the number of people that can join the conference/meeting is very high ......

• A great cloud based phone system

  • Reviewer Role: Digital Marketing
  • Company Size: 250M - 500M USD
  • Industry: Services Industry

  Zoom phone system is a unique and best cloud phone service. The best thing about this is they use hardware as well as software to give a seamless experience to their customers. We have been using this phone system for more than three years and are very happy to know the ......

• Zoom is a life line for our communications needs during the pandemic

  • Reviewer Role: System Integrator
  • Company Size: 50M - 250M USD
  • Industry: Manufacturing Industry

  Since the pandemic my company has relied heavily on Zoom to keep everyone in touch. Its been a small challenge to deploy and a small learning curve but we all got there. I do love the fact they keep improving the products and coming up with really cool tools to enhance the ......

• Perfect cloud calling platform for businesses

  • Reviewer Role: Data and Analytics
  • Company Size: 10B - 30B USD
  • Industry: Services Industry

  During these pandemic times, connecting with peers was a tedious task at hand but integration with Zoom Phone which provides cloud phone solutions. Zoom phone has given one of the great calling experience which has enabled zero distance within our management even ......

• Take video calls at any time, with an interface created for the to-go needs

  • Reviewer Role: Digital Marketing
  • Company Size: <50M USD
  • Industry: Services Industry

  Being able to hold a videoconference at any moment from any device is a must during this year, and Zoom Phone has been a great asset to the experience. ...

• Best replacement for calls in these remote work times

  • Reviewer Role: Program and Portfolio Management
  • Company Size: 50M - 250M USD
  • Industry: Services Industry

  Great and easy tool to set up and work with. Very user friendly and easy to learn. Setting up a call/meeting id is super fast and easy. The quality of screen sharing is excellent. Recordings can be done locally or on the cloud as per settings....

• The best application for participating a video conference while traveling.

  • Reviewer Role: Sales and Marketing
  • Company Size: Gov't/PS/ED 50,000 + Employees
  • Industry: Education Industry

  Zoom phone helps me conduct and attends video conferencing or meetings very easily using my mobile device. The platform is very easy to use and not feel any complexity. It allows me to login from multiple devices, so even if network cracked in one device will help us prevent ......

• Great multiple OS application

  • Reviewer Role: Customer Experience Leader
  • Company Size: <50M USD
  • Industry: Manufacturing Industry

  Zoom has been a great application for our company. We enjoy the flexibility of Zoom on our desktops as well as in our Zoom Rooms....

See All 136 Product Reviews

You can use your VOIP phone to call into Webex or zoom meetings.  Currently it will not work for Microsoft Teams meetings.  The VOIP phone will join as a guest.  You can use your computer to be the host, and use the phone for your audio and/or camera.  It is recommended to use the phone for audio, not the computer.  Or if you use the computer for audio and only need the phone's camera, take the phone handset off the hook, turn off the speaker phone, and mute the phone microphone. 

Before we proceed, let's review meeting addresses.  The format your VOIP phone understands is like an email address:  ##########@domain.com.   Usually this is one of the meeting address formats included in a meeting invitation.    ######### can be a meeting ID number, or it can be the ID number of the lobby where you can then enter a meeting number.  Definitely save the lobby meeting ID number.  When you use the meeting ID of the lobby you will need to enter the actual meeting ID number each time, but you can enter any meeting ID number for that service.  In this guide we will use the meeting ID number of the zoom lobby, and also for webex.  It may also make sense to save the meeting address of your personal meeting space or someone you call frequently, or a frequently used Webex space since those IDs never change.  

Zoom lobby:  [email protected]

Webex: [email protected]

Specific zoom meeting:   #########@zoomcrc.com

Specific webex meeting:  #########@clemson.webex.com

The easy way to do this is add the meeting address or the lobby address to the VOIP phone speed dial list. You don't have to set a speed dial, but it is much easier since the alternative is to use the phone dial pad as a T9 keyboard. 

To set a speed dial, first open your web browser to https://phone.clemson.edu.  You must be on campus, on VPN, or using google Chrome in CUAPPS or SecureDesktop.  If not, you will not connect to Edit Phone Settings. For more information on CUAPPS see:  https://hdkb.clemson.edu/phpkb/article.php?id=606

Click Edit Phone Settings.

Log in with your Clemson credentials.

Click the gear next to your VOIP phone.

Choose Settings from the menu. 

Expand the Speed Dial Numbers section and click Add New Speed Dial.

Enter the meeting address, give it a descriptive name, and choose a speed dial number, and click Save.

Repeat to add another, choosing a different Speed Dial number 

Once you've added all your Speed Dials, Sign Out of the website.

It may take a minute for your phone to update.  Once it does you may see the new Speed Dials appear on the screen.

To use the Speed Dial, press the button next to the label.  For the meeting lobby it will prompt you to enter the meeting ID number, then the meeting passcode if appropriate.  If you saved a specific meeting ID number, it will prompt you for the meeting passcode if appropriate. 

Meeting ID:

Meeting Passcode:

You will be joining as a guest.  If the meeting has a waiting room the meeting host will have to let you in.  If you are the meeting host, you will need to use your computer to let your phone in from the waiting room.

Remember, it is recommended to use the phone for audio, not the computer.  Or if you use the computer for audio and only need the phone's camera, take the phone handset off the hook, turn off the speaker phone and mute the phone microphone. 

If you have more questions, email [email protected] or call 864-656-3494.

Why is it that some people, when connecting their audio for a video conference, dial in via a traditional landline or cell phone rather than using the computer audio? They’re calling into a meeting on a telephone for audio, even while joining video via their computer. But why not just press one button on your computer to connect both audio AND video to a meeting?

The answer we hear a lot is that computer audio from most web conferencing solutions just isn’t great, with connection issues and poor service making it a “struggle” for users.

Many of us have been burned by less-than-stellar voice over internet protocol (VoIP), and it’s now difficult to trust because it’s choppy or it cuts out. But we’re here to tell you that with Zoom, VoIP just works!

This post shares details on how we built Zoom, why our VoIP is so reliable, and why you can finally trust computer audio.

What is VoIP?

Voice over internet protocol is the technology that allows you to make voice calls using an internet connection instead of a traditional or analog phone line. It’s the audio that comes over your computer, conference room system, or mobile device via the internet. You can call anyone with a phone number using VoIP services, including local, long-distance, mobile, and even international numbers.

The challenges of traditional VoIP

We’ve all been burned by unstable computer audio from a legacy communication provider. Typical VoIP solution providers don’t provide sufficient bandwidth and system capacity, leading to packet loss, network latency, jittery or choppy audio, persistent echo, and an overall poor user experience. 

In fact, some vendors even encourage users to dial in by phone (and use the computer for video) because they can’t trust their own computer audio to work. When their computer audio fails to turn on or cuts out, they know it’s hard to trust it again.

It might take some convincing, but we want you to know you can trust Zoom’s VoIP service. Here’s why.

The Zoom VoIP difference

Thanks to our best-in-class audio processing and software architecture, Zoom VoIP delivers crystal-clear quality and a reliable connection even in low-bandwidth environments. In fact, 85% of Zoom meeting participants use VoIP to connect audio.

Designed for low latency and noise cancellation, Zoom’s computer audio beats traditional PSTN and VoIP services because we: 

• Use higher clarity broadband audio (HD voice) instead of the narrow-band audio used by PSTN lines, which often muffle the sound.
• Carefully smooth over lost packets when network conditions deteriorate. In fact, Zoom continues to perform well in environments with up to 45% packet loss.
• Employ advanced audio processing technologies to suppress all types of noise, cancel echoes, and remove room reverberation.
• Built in smart features, such as audio feedback detection and automatic mute reminder, to provide a user-friendly communication experience.

Additionally, our audio and video run on the Zoom cloud, a proprietary global network built with one goal in mind: delivering high-quality communications experiences for today’s users. 

How Zoom outperforms other services

Zoom provides industry-leading customer satisfaction because it’s our No. 1 priority. And it’s why we built an infrastructure of reliable service that directly supports our audio and video quality. Zoom is able to meet its customer and user’s needs through its own global network of seventeen colocated data centers, as well as through public cloud data centers, which are predominately operated through Amazon Web Services (“AWS”).  The Services are designed to work in a way that any information entering our ecosystem is routed through the data center that is nearest to the user sending or receiving the data. For example, for a US user, Zoom’s systems first try to connect to one of our five US data centers for the best connection. If there is no response within a specific time-period (usually 5.5 seconds) from any of the five US data centers, then additional back-up bridge servers around the world are pinged. Here’s how we make it happen:

• You get a local point of presence: Zoom’s geographically dispersed data center network allows users to connect directly to the Zoom cloud through a local point of presence. A local on-ramp to the Zoom cloud will deliver high-quality audio, video, and collaboration services no matter where you are.
• High availability is all we know: The Zoom cloud is fully redundant at each point of presence around the world. All servers and network devices have redundant components and multiple network paths to avoid single points of failure. If there ever is an issue at one of our data centers, that traffic automatically redirects to a fully-functioning point of presence so you don’t miss a beat.
• Distributed networks, for the win: The Zoom cloud runs on a distributed network of low-latency multimedia routers. All session data originating from a host device and arriving at the participants’ devices is dynamically switched, so every meeting participant gets a local point of presence that’s also integrated into Zoom’s high-quality global backbone.

The benefits of Zoom VoIP

When you get high-quality computer audio, you get a better communications experience but also a number of other benefits. With Zoom’s VoIP service, you get:

• Peace of mind that your computer audio will always work 
• A faster, easier way to join your critical calls
• Cost savings when you eliminate the per-minute audio charges from PSTNs

Don’t believe us? Here’s what the team over at Cooper Standard Automotive, a leading automotive supplier, had to say about Zoom VoIP:

“In our old solutions, it was always dial-in. So we were really nervous adding that Voice over IP onto our network,” said Matt Harper, IT manager at Cooper Standard. 

“But we’re up to 80% (usage) of VoIP,” said Bob Cross, Cooper Standard’s IT director. “And with Zoom’s VoIP, you eliminate the cost for the dial-in — and the quality is better.”

Computer audio you can trust

We understand that dialing in via phone might be the only option at times. Perhaps you don’t have an internet connection or you’re on the go and need to join via phone. Traditional phone audio will still be the go-to option in those scenarios, and Zoom is happy to provide the flexibility of joining over telephone audio or computer audio. 

But we wanted to tell you that you no longer have to fear using computer audio anymore when you have VoIP through Zoom’s unified communications platform.

And if you’re in the market, Zoom works with a lot of great wired and wireless headsets. These quality devices help block out background noise if you’re sharing space with others while working from home.

Ready to bring more reliable computer audio (and video!) to your enterprise? Sign up for a personalized demo with a Zoom product specialist today!

Editor’s note: This post was updated Nov. 6, 2020, to clarify language around customizing your data routing settings. 

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• Empower your end users to make phone calls with the same ease and familiarity as Zoom video meetings. Read our Hybrid Office Guide
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“Zoom Phone has been incredibly valuable when it comes to keeping our teams connected. The one-click option to elevate calls to meetings allowed our users ease, and reduced time spent, alleviating the need to juggle multiple platforms. Zoom’s pricing plans made it easy to roll out a single solution across our offices around the world.”

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