What Is A Neutral Tandem Voip Number? [A Guide For Businesses]

Last updated on December 8th, 2022

Running a business is hard and starting one up can sometimes make you consider things months (even years) down the line that you did not think about before.

It’s super easy for simple things to slip through the cracks, so I thought I would make this easy guide for businesses covering Neutral Tandem and VoIP numbers. 

VoIP numbers are one of those things that new business owners don’t know about but they can actually save you a ton of time and costs – so in my opinion, it’s definitely worth checking out! 

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What Is A Neutral Tandem VoIP Number?

To define what a Neutral Tandem VoIP number is, I first need to explain what (or rather, who) Neutral Tandem are and what a VoIP number is. This way, you can easily understand what a Neutral Tandem VoIP number is. 

What Is Neutral Tandem?

Neutral Tandem is a communication business first set up in 2001. They offer a range of communication tandem services to cable, wireline, wireless, and broadband providers on a wholesale basis.

They service clients primarily in the United States so if your business is not based there, you won’t be able to access their services. 

In 2021, Neutral Tandem actually changed its company name to ‘Inteliquent’ and today, it is the largest independent communications provider with 94% of the US population covered. Over 115 million phone numbers are powered by their network.

So, Neutral Tandem is today called ‘Inteliquent’ but you will hear a lot of people still refer to them by their old company name – just in case you get confused like I did! 

What Is A VoIP Number? 

One of the services that Neutral Tandem (or Inteliquent) provides is VoIP numbers.

VoIP numbers are basically the phone number you receive whenever you sign up to a provider like Neutral Tandem. It stands for Voice-over Internet Protocol and is specifically assigned to a user rather than a device.

What this allows for is for telephone services to be delivered over the internet through cloud-based services instead of traditional methods like copper wired PSTN or ISDN phone lines for businesses. 

VoIP numbers started out in the 1990s and today, they are used all around the world. The global VoIP market share is projected to reach $93.2 billion by 2024, with revenue projected to total at $194.5 billion in the same year.

There are 350 million VoIP business users worldwide and that number is expected to rise in the coming years. 

So, What Is A Neutral Tandem VoIP Number? 

A Neutral Tandem VoIP number is basically the VoIP number you get when you sign up to Neutral Tandem’s VoIP services.

It will allow you to make telephone calls over the internet rather than traditional phone lines, and this opens up the door for many more possibilities. 

The Benefits Of Using A Neutral Tandem VoIP Number

So, now you know what a Neutral Tandem VoIP number is, but why should it interest you and your business?

VoIP numbers offer a range of benefits to its users, both for personal and business purposes alike. As a result, a lot of businesses are switching to VoIP over old traditional phone line methods.

In 2010, there were 6.2 million business VoIP lines but by 2018, there were 41.6 million. According to a 2019 report from Blueface, 35% of businesses fully hosted VoIP technologies while 55% used a hybrid mixture between VoIP and traditional technology. 

Overall, it’s estimated that 31% of all businesses use VoIP systems. Here are some of the reasons why! 

VoIP Numbers Reduce Costs

The average employee spends 400 minutes a month on telephone calls, and this can result in some pretty hefty fees – especially if those calls are international! 

Costs are a big concern for businesses big and small. 82% experience cash flow problems, 33% of small business owners claim that lack of capital is their biggest challenge, and 29% end up failing because they run out of cash. 

So, a lot of businesses are looking for ways to cut back on spending to avoid cash flow problems and so they can simply stay in business – and there’s proof that switching to a VoIP can do just that. 

An average business with 30 VoIP users can save $1,200 per month compared to those who use traditional phone lines, and businesses who adopt VoIP technology report that they see a 50% to 70% reduction in costs.

Even by using softphones (that’s VoIP calls used over a computer), a business can save $1727 per month. This means that small businesses especially can save on costs simply by switching to a Neutral Tandem VoIP. 

As costs are such a huge concern for businesses, I think this is one of the most important benefits that VoIP numbers can offer.

The average VoIP costs are only between $20 to $30 per user per month, which can save a ton on fees if you need to communicate internationally and frequently. These annual VoIP fees are also predicted to reduce in the coming years by 3% to 5% each year. 

VoIP Improve Productivity

I am all about efficiency so finding out that VoIP actually improves productivity for small businesses was something that really piqued my interest. 

Different VoIP features help improve productivity. Some of the most popular VoIP features included Find Me/Follow Me with 77% of survey respondents claiming that this feature improved productivity the most.

Conference calling was close behind with 65% and mobile IP PBX at 58%.

The same survey also found that VoIP helped improve the handling of phone calls for 67% of businesses, improved the management of messages for 63%, and allowed work to be performed remotely for 57%.

So, it’s clear that the features that come with VoIPs can improve your business’s productivity in multiple ways. 

One study also found that switching to VoIP saves businesses around 32 minutes on call each day. This means that your employees can spend that precious extra half an hour each day on other work to boost your business’s overall productivity and efficiency. 

Using A VoIP Is Flexible

One of the ways VoIP helps improve a business’s productivity is because of how flexible it is to use. 

I mentioned earlier how 57% of businesses found that using a VoIP helped to allow phone calls to be made remotely, and the ability to accommodate calls from anywhere increased business productivity by 20%. 

This is especially useful in a post COVID19 world where 42% of the US workforce work from home.

Working remotely is proven to offer companies a lot of benefits as this study shows, including higher employee retention rates, improved productivity due to the lack of distractions, lower levels of stress in employees, and employees taking less vacation time and/or sick days. 

So, by switching to a VoIP, it’s easier to allow employees to work remotely so your business can reap the other benefits that come with telecommuting. 

VoIP Has Easy Scalability

When it comes to handling phone calls, scalability can be hard. 

If your business starts receiving more and more phone calls, then more advanced technology and equipment is often needed and this can cost a lot of money.

Some businesses don’t even need that upscale all year round as some see spikes in calls around seasonal times of the year. 

However, with a VoIP, you don’t need to go out of your way to find better equipment to prepare for those spikes.

VoIP is easily scalable as it uses cloud services to handle calls. So, all you have to do is toggle your preferences on your plan without the need to purchase equipment or additional lines. 

The Challenges Of Using A VoIP

Although it’s clear that there are advantages to using a VoIP service like what Neutral Tandem offers, there are also challenges to them as well.

After all, nothing is perfect and it’s only fair I talk about the downsides to VoIP too, so here are some of the disadvantages that come with using a VoIP.

Dropped Calls And Unstable Connection

80% of remote employees pay for their home internet although they use it for work, which means that the quality of their internet connection is all dependent on how much they can afford to pay.

As a result, it’s likely that a lot of remote employees end up opting for an internet service that cannot provide them with the quality connection they need for their work. 

The end result? Dropped calls and low quality communication over the VoIP. 

According to this survey from Owl Labs, 52% of respondents said that poor internet speed and connectivity caused problems in video meetings, with poor audio quality reported by 57% of respondents and poor video quality reported by 56% respondents.

These issues can be distracting and damage the productivity of your calls. 

However, it’s worth noting that traditional copper wired  PSTN or ISDN weren’t perfect in quality either.

It’s common knowledge that PSTN and ISDN calls can drop suddenly for no explained reason, so I think it’s likely that these kinds of problems are just general and unavoidable with all kinds of communication services. 

Security Threats

The biggest worry I and others have with using a VoIP is security. 

Using the internet for calls opens you up to cyber-attacks and your business is now vulnerable to that lane of security breach.

61% of small businesses were the target of cyber attacks in 2021. Despite this, 38% of small businesses have no protocols in place to deal with cybersecurity threats and 37% of small businesses say they are ‘not concerned’ about cyber attacks.  

Those who do usually need to spend funds to back up and enforce their VoIP system with additional security measures, and that can eat into your costs.

One survey found that nearly half of small businesses in the US spend less than $1,500 per month on cyber security.

However, these costs cannot compare to the cost of falling victim to a cyber attack. In 2020, cyber attacks caused $2.8 billion worth in damages against small businesses, and 95% of cybersecurity incidents cost businesses between $826 and $653,587 each. 

So, before opting for a VoIP, you need to consider the kind of extra security you need to put into place – or you could be putting your whole business at serious risk. 

My Final Thoughts

So, a Neutral Tandem VoIP number is the number you receive for signing up to Neutral Tandem’s (or Inteliquent as they are now called) VoIP services. 

Having a VoIP means that you can cut back on costs when making calls by hosting (see also, ‘Best WordPress Hosting Convesio‘) them through the internet rather than through traditional methods.

Other benefits include better productivity and flexibility, but VoIPs do come with their own challenges like the threat of security breaches and the reliance on a strong internet connection to keep calls from dropping or lowering in quality. 

Although it’s not necessary that you have a VoIP (yet alone one through Neutral Tandem, there are other service providers out there) but statistics do show that more and more businesses are making the switch. 

So, I recommend you think carefully about switching to VoIP.

You don’t have to follow the crowd; you should think about what your business needs, and if that is to lower spending on calls or to make handling phone calls easier for your remote employees, then a VoIP could be the answer.