Rob Harman’s plate is always full. He’s the president of a Texas-based engineering company, and also operates a cattle farm at his West Virginia home. His company employs 12 engineers, and Harman has a fulltime employee at his farm.
“It keeps me extremely busy,” he said.
It also requires an extremely reliable phone service. And for Harman, that’s Viasat Business Voice.
Already a Viasat Business Internet subscriber, he subscribed to Viasat Business Voice when the largest area phone service provider grew steadily more unreliable. He’s never looked back.
“The service works really well,” Harman said. “I’ve had it for a close to a year now and it’s more reliable than my landline.
“I need this phone for both my businesses. I use the conferencing feature 6-plus hours a day. I’ve had no issues.”
Viasat Business Voice is a cloud-based solution ideal for small businesses, generally those with less than 10 employees. Viasat designed Business Voice to give those businesses enterprise-grade, high-quality service at an affordable price. To ensure premium call quality, Business Voice traffic is prioritized on our network.
How it works
How does Viasat provide high-quality Business Voice service?
Viasat Business Voice is a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service, delivered via the internet. It bypasses standard copper lines and telephone networks, instead sending your voice as data over Viasat’s satellite network.
A VoIP service sends packets of these data in intervals, keeping a steady flow to the conversation. Getting it to work well over satellites required an extra level of effort by Viasat.
Network interference or congestion can throw off that data traffic, causing some packets to reach the recipient quicker than others or drop off entirely. Packets of information that arrive out of order can create jitter – leading to jumbled conversations, delays and degraded overall quality.
These common VoIP issues, along with the perception of latency people associate with satellite services, made some skeptical of VoIP over satellite.
By prioritizing Voice traffic on its network, Viasat has mitigated those issues.
“More than latency, jitter and packet loss is what really interferes with voice calls in terms of clarity,” said Steve Lusk, Viasat’s director of sales engineering and strategic alliances. “But raising the priority helps ensure the sequencing of packets are going to remain the same, so you have a nice clean connection.”
Lusk knows firsthand since, like most Viasat employees, he’s working remotely. He regularly uses the Voice service to make calls from the secluded Tennessee cabin where he’s currently living. The people he speaks with don’t know it’s a VoIP over satellite call unless he tells them.
“It’s not enough for us to say it works; the real proof is in the call,” he said. “They are always surprised and impressed.”
Viasat Business Voice customers also have access to plenty of options and features. They can use a desktop phone provided with the service, or make calls via a free mobile app on their personal smartphone.
Features include unlimited calling in the U.S., to Mexico and Canada, three-way calling, call forwarding, call waiting, caller ID and number portability.
Customers can order up to four lines for each business.
Viasat Business Internet customers can add the Business Voice service for $25 a month.
For more information, visit Viasat Business Voice.