How to Minimize the Effects of the Weather on Call Quality
The weather can have an effect on call quality. Static, hissing, echoes and other noises can be symptoms of weather-related issues with your phone system.
The good news is that it’s possible to minimize the effects of the weather on call quality.
How Weather Impacts Your Phone Lines
Even though landline phone calls are transmitted via underground cables, the weather can impact the quality of your calls.
Precipitation can cause disruptions – like humming or crackling sounds – when moisture leaks into phone lines. This happens when rain or melting snow penetrates the lines. Moisture and temperature changes can damage the infrastructure over time.
Lightning can also damage the connection, causing intermittent popping noises.
There can be other causes of poor call quality, but typically, if the issues only happen occasionally, the weather is the culprit.
If you experience crackling noise on your phone line when it rains, you’ll need to have your telephone company inspect it for water damage. This must be done by professionals because, even though phone lines are low voltage, they can deliver an electrical shock, especially in wet conditions.
The impact of the weather on your phone call quality can become a major irritant and a huge inconvenience in the case of damage to the infrastructure.
Fortunately, there is a phone system that minimizes the effects of the weather on call quality.
A Phone System to Minimize the Effects of Weather on Call Quality
A hosted phone system is designed to ensure reliability regardless of the weather. Cloud-based technology powers the system rather than conventional hardware and infrastructure.
How a Hosted Phone System Resists Weather Impact
Geographically redundant infrastructure via multiple data centers across the country keep business phones online no matter what. Each data center location is protected from service disruption through several means:
- Multiple power grids
- Backup power generators
- Internet connections
- Environmental controls
- Security personnel
A process called “automatic failover” keeps calls flowing clearly. If one center is impacted by severe weather or environmental factors, the other centers automatically take over to keep your service functioning seamlessly. No on-site technicians are required.
How to Handle Hosted Phone Calls During Internet Outages
Most businesses today rely on a robust internet connection. This is especially true for businesses using a hosted phone system.
So what happens during internet failure?
A hosted phone system provides several options to maintain phone service in the event of an internet outage:
- Forward your calls to any other number, including mobile devices.
- Forward your calls to your service provider’s softphone mobile app.
- Disconnect your desk phone and plug it into an ethernet cable with a viable network connection.
The option to have calls routed to your mobile device using the softphone mobile app is particularly convenient. It transforms your mobile phone into your business phone, keeping your personal number private and giving you access to all the features of your business phone.
Prevent Poor Call Quality with a Hosted Phone System
If you do experience poor call quality with a hosted phone system, the weather is unlikely to be the problem.
Common call quality issues with a hosted phone system can all be easily resolved with increased internet speed, reconfiguration, or an upgraded router.
Need to improve your call quality? Want to protect your business phone system from weather impact? Contact us today for more about the reliability of a hosted phone system.