When your company is trying to optimize its applications, editable APIs and SIP trunking standards are the most convenient ways to ensure that your software connects seamlessly. Voxbone allows users to “bring it all together” by connecting APIs with other communications providers. With Voxbone, you provision numbers automatically, connect with emergency services around the world, seamlessly connect apps with the platform, and achieve coverage on a global scale.
Not every provider is easy to develop for; Voxbone prides itself on being an open-source solution for businesses, and it’s become very popular throughout the communications industry. Multiple unified communications as a service (UCaaS) providers in the Gartner Magic Quadrant use Voxbone. This includes market leaders RingCentral and 8×8, who use Voxbone’s system to connect to international customers and emergency services.
What is Voxbone?
Voxbone is a cloud-native international carrier that’s based in Brussels, Belgium, and started as Voxbone SA/NV. It has regulatory compliance and virtual numbers in more than 60 countries. This means that companies can expand their reach internationally with fully compliant with regulations in place. As a result, adding the communications solution to any business’s suite of tools is simplified, even when breaching new markets.
If you’ve communicated with a service via text or contacted an overseas call center for a customer service question, then you may have already used Voxbone. For example, Voxbone is a partner of Uber; when you contact a driver, Voxbone powers the app. Not only is this SMS-based communication using the platform, but the local virtual numbers that are automatically generated on the driver’s end are made using Voxbone.
Voxbone’s API is easy to develop for, and the flexible API makes it easy to add voice and SMS to any app. The service provider has a decade of history with brands such as Uber, Deutsche Telekom, Skype, Zoom, and RingCentral. Voxbone has become useful for businesses looking to reach global markets because it’s easy to provision virtual numbers.
Voxbone Eliminates Handling Fees
During your apps transmissions to the carrier, it must first go through aggregators. Aggregators provide an important function in the app development process – they connect the application to carriers while maintaining adherence to compliance regulations as established by the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA).
Unfortunately, aggregators charge handling fees for your app data, and some providers bounce your application data across multiple aggregators before it arrives at the carrier. This increases costs significantly and degrades the quality of the transmission, adding jitter and latency. Voxbone has the least-cost routing that sends the data through fewer aggregators so that costs are reduced and calls are clearer.
Voxbone Integrates With Any Communication Stack
Being SIP-enabled means that the communications platform incorporates voice calling AND other data transfers. Voxbone prides itself on its ability to integrate voice and SMS into any app or service that uses SIP technology to initiate and close transfers. If you’re using SIP on your application for calls, SMS, or to send files, then it’s a simple process to integrate Voxbone into your communications stack.
Voxbone uses a REST API for voice and SMS, and any application that allows for editable APIs will interface with Voxbone’s platform. For example, while we presented Voxbone as a key Twilio alternative, it’s possible to use the CPaaS provider’s call control using the Voxbone network. You’ll need an account with both providers, but integration between the two will allow your company to connect Voxbone numbers to the Twilio platform.
This is primarily done by creating a SIP interface between Twilio and Voxbone, and you’ll have to whitelist Voxbone and set up a SIP URI for it to work, but this is a good way to save money and ensure calls are high-quality because least-cost routing helps cut out aggregators during the data transfer to the carrier.
Voxbone allows users to perform similar connections with communication platforms like 3CX and Plivo. Voxbone’s developer page shows your team everything that they need to know about the configuration process, and in many cases, the process takes mere minutes. This is a great “bang for your buck” option for businesses because your organization will benefit from a reliable voice infrastructure (Voxbone) while continuing to use the apps developed by other providers like Twilio, 3CX, and Plivo.
This sort of connectivity is why Voxbone is a good choice for those teams with developers that understand REST APIs. Voxbone has a dedicated developer’s page that presents teams with several critical resources so that connections and integrations with the platform are made easily. There’s also an API request section for developers that want to see future APIs added.
What Security Features Does Voxbone Provide?
Before you switch services, one of the first things that you’ll consider is security for the new service. Information leaks are always devastating, especially for a small company.
Voxbone has secure outbound and inbound SIP trunks with VPN, TLS, and SRTP. Voxbone routes calls over its private network backbone instead of over the public internet with fewer inroads for hackers to steal information. In addition to the backbone, Voxbone also uses several security protocols to keep data safe.
TLS
The TLS, or the Transport Layer Security, is designed to keep both ends of the transfer secure and to protect the data as it’s being sent. This information may not be critical to some businesses, but using this technology is like disabling a tracking device. TLS permits your data to be secure in-transit and when it’s at rest. TLS performs an important task that is also performed by encryption: it keeps data protected at all stages of the game.
VPN
The VPN, which stands for Virtual Private Network, will encrypt the route that the information is taking to reach its destination. VPN builds a secure tunnel through the internet to the Voxbone platform from your site’s infrastructure. This tunnel is virtually inaccessible from computers outside of either network.
SRTP
Secure Real-Time Transport Protocol or SRTP is another type of security that protects the actual voice signal that’s being sent. SRTP is made for confidentiality, and its primary role is to authenticate any sent messages. It also protects any audio and video that’s transmitted and recorded during a communications session, to provide HIPAA and HITECH compliance.
It encrypts all audio and video packets with a special key that’s provisioned to those within the organization. Because of its media protection, this protocol is often used in conjunction with SIP to provide security for business VoIP calls and data transmission.
Voxbone Adds Extra Security to WebRTC
Since it was first announced in 2011, WebRTC has become an integral part of global communications. The open-source technology, which enables voice and video conferencing calls to be executed via browsers, makes this type of communication much easier than was possible using the previous systems of C or C++. It’s estimated that there are now more than two billion browsers in the world that are WebRTC capable, and users spend billions of minutes per week on WebRTC-based calls. WebRTC is also embeddable in applications, so it’s possible to make calls from browsers to devices.
In most cases, WebRTC is used directly over the public internet, and while it uses TLS and encryption, Voxbone adds an extra layer of security in its WebRTC beta service. Voxbone calls are carried over the provider’s private global backbone, which means that there’s no avenue for potential attackers to access any call information. Also, since the data is transmitted from browsers or devices along this backbone, there’s less public internet traffic that could degrade call quality.
Voxbone’s Multiple Services
So, what about the cloud communications service offerings of Voxbone? Thanks to Voxbone’s willingness to keep their software competitive and open, they have several service packages that provide some needed functionality for businesses like yours.
VoxDID
VoxDID is for businesses that need their voice network to extend outside of their home markets. All incoming calls will be carried over the internet, which means that you will be able to transmit the calls to any location in the world on the same number.
Voxbone uses a private service platform to convert the data from PSTN before it is transferred, so the information will not be traveling across a public network. It provides national dialing numbers for more than 60 countries and 9,000 cities across the globe so that you establish a local presence. There is a flat fee for this service, so there are no per-minute fees when customers reach out to your business.
Best for:
- Companies who are looking to go international
- Businesses with agents who work remotely
Vox800
Vox800 is a service that provides toll-free numbers for callers to use so that they do not need to make calls to another region. This makes contact convenient because callers aren’t privy to long-distance fees. Toll-free numbers are available in more than 45 countries using Voxbone, and there are no restrictions on the number of calls a business places concurrently.
All of the information being sent across these toll-free lines will be converted from PSTN using VoIP gateways. This makes calling a company more convenient for the caller, but it does add a per-minute fee for the business. This charge varies in price based on where the caller is located.
Best for:
- Contact centers with a high call capacity
- Sales teams
VoxOUT
Since using Voxbone provides you with international phone numbers that are useable worldwide, VoxOUT is a feature that grants the company access to local emergency services in those countries. This allows you to activate the emergency service numbers in areas where employees working, but disable them in more remote parts of the world where they will not be needed.
When an individual makes a call to contact an emergency service, VoxOUT will determine where the call is being placed from, and look up the corresponding local number to connect the caller. This also allows the number that the individual is calling from to be translated into a local number so that the emergency services know how to respond.
Best for:
- Healthcare companies
- 311 call centers
VoxFAX
VoxFAX is a service that allows the company to add a fax machine or online fax to its call flow. It allows inbound fax messages to be changed to an email message that is deliverable in over 50 countries. It will be converted from PSTN at Voxbone’s geo-redundant fax service cluster and changed to PDF or TIFF to complete the delivery.
When the message is converted, you can choose to send the message via an HTTP or an SMTP transmission. There is a flat monthly fee for the use of this secure online fax service.
Best for:
- Companies doing business in Japan or Germany where the fax is still heavily in use
- Businesses requiring a paper trail
VoxSMS
VoxSMS provides your company with the ability to make and receive inbound and outbound text messages using mobile VoxDID numbers. With this, all cloud mobile services will be connected to local telephone networks through the local mobile number. This allows the business to send texts locally as well as internationally.
Communication via text has become a preferred way for customers to interact with their favorite brands, and VoxSMS facilitates this process. With it, you include a text feature in your business’s app so that customers communicate with your reps when they need a service or have a question.
Best for:
- Businesses developing apps for their customers to contact their representatives
- Support organizations looking to become multichannel
Does Voxbone Deliver for Business?
Voxbone integration is simple thanks to a fully editable API, and it makes connecting the software with other solutions very straightforward. Voxbone is very earnest when it comes to working with other cloud communications solutions – they integrate with any VoIP-enabled switch, hosted PBX system, or application with SIP capability.
Some of the key takeaways to consider when determining if this communications system works for your organization:
- Voxbone serves over 65 countries worldwide
- There are a stock of over 10 million phone numbers in their inventory
- Voxbone’s uptime is 99.99%
- There are over 500 private interconnection points
- Voxbone works with 13 tier-1 ISPs
- 5 billion minutes are carried by Voxbone yearly
- It’s supported by six network locations that are fully meshed for geo-redundancy
Despite its strong presence in the industry, www.voxbone.com is filled with pitches to provide utility to companies that want to tighten up their communications processes by connecting to carriers more directly. Thanks to their commitment to open communications, Voxbone has become a company to follow in enterprise VoIP.
