This week saw the first example of a witness being called to testify in a trial via Skype in the US. However, what should have been a triumph for “the establishment” joining the digital revolution, quickly turned into a fiasco when dozens of Internet trolls gatecrashed the hearing.
The prosecuting attorney, Scott Pleasants, made the mistake of leaving his profile open, allowing anyone to call him. The witness’ testimony in the trial was constantly interrupted by people trying to call Pleasants, until eventually the judge overseeing proceedings brought a halt to the Skype call and resorted to a traditional conference call using landlines.
Although Pleasant’s unpleasant experience was mainly down to misconfiguration, public services like Skype can cause embarrassment, particularly to business users. A hosted VoIP solution, on the other hand, is designed to operate as a professional phone line, rather than a generalised communications system. Had Pleasants used one, he could have diverted the malicious callers (or any other incoming call) to voicemail whilst the court hearing was underway.
The same is true for many business users – the stigma of using a budget service that is then used against your company could have long lasting, avoidable implications. To find out more about the potential advantages of hosted VoIP over free services, give the Broadband Cloud Solutions team a call today on 0141 585 6363.
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