Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) has actually been around in one form or another since 1973 when it began as an experiment by the US Department of Defence. However, it wasn't until the rise of high speed broadband that it really started to take off in a big way.

Established in 1996, Storm www.storm-switchboards.com realised early on that there was a great potential market for VoIP. Alan Thorpe-Downey, CEO of Storm explains how high speed broadband provided by Freedom2Surf (f2s) has enabled him to build a successful business designing and building hosted VoIP telephone systems for businesses of all sizes:

"We had been in the communications industry since 1996 but it wasn't until we started using VoIP for our own office in 2001 that we realised this was a market that was going to explode one day. That day is fast approaching, more and more companies are experiencing the benefits of VoIP."

The company now has a wide range of customers, from dental surgeries to shipping companies with offices across the world. These customers have completely transformed their businesses using Storm's telephone system and Freedom2Surf broadband as a new means of communication.

"We have made VoIP very simple to use and the best thing about it is that you don't have to understand the technology, just reap the benefits of it because we have made the whole thing plug and play," says Alan.

Storm's 'plug and play' telephone system enables businesses of all sizes to have up to 8 simultaneous calls running on just one BT line. Including features such as intelligent call queuing, auto attendant and call distribution, Alan explains the system gives businesses a competitive advantage as their customers will never hit an engaged tone:

"Businesses really benefit from the improvements that our system gives them because they no longer miss calls from their customers. Voicemails are automatically emailed to them so they can pick them up on their mobiles when they are out. They can even have a mobile phone as an extension of their main switchboard. After installing our system, customers are often amazed by the rise in call volumes. It makes them realise how many calls they must have missed, consequently missing out on potential sales opportunities.

"The ability to have multiple sites linked together means that you can have a customer call your UK based telephone number but the phones will not only ring in the UK, but will also ring in all of your international offices if necessary. The first to pick it up gets the call. They can also call each other free all day which has some real cost benefits," says Alan, "that's the real beauty of it".

The particular broadband service which enables Storm and its customers to run such an effective communication system is provided by Freedom2Surf, one of the UK's leading Internet service providers.

"All our customers have extremely high volumes of calls going through our service which means that we rely heavily on reliable, high speed broadband. A bad service from the ADSL supplier means a bad service for our customers, and we cannot afford that. Freedom2Surf provides exceptional reliability of connection and speed which enables us to deliver such an excellent service," explains Alan.

"Our experience has always been that if there is a problem, Freedom2Surf's customer and technical support get things done fast. We can confidently install our system knowing that Freedom2Surf will not let us down and that our installation will be seamless".

In summary, thanks to high speed broadband provided by Freedom2Surf, Storm and its customers can now benefit from VoIP as a cheaper and more effective alternative to traditional telephone services.