Telephones – A force for good or evil?

As the youth of Britain riot the world watches on and the good publicity that we have received as a host Olympic city vanishes in an instant. Indeed the timing couldn’t have been worse for the London Olympic organisers who had arranged a test beach volleyball event on Horse Guards Parade from 9-14 August.

One of the features of the latest disturbances was the speed and ease with which the rioters communicated with each other. Whilst Twitter and Facebook played their part, the Blackberry Messenger service is believed to have carried the main bulk of the planning communications, enabling rioters to keep one step ahead of the police task force.

Ironically it is those same communication devices, which are now being blamed for the London riots, which were praised earlier this year for enabling protesters in places such as Tunisia and Egypt to make a stand against their regimes. So are telephones a force for good or harm?

In truth, like most things, the merit of a telephone is in the hands of the user. Telephone hacking has had a bad press recently but telephone support lines can give advice which will change someone’s life. Prank calls can cause distress whereas disaster recovery telephone packages can save a business.

Actually, it’s not just disaster recovery packages that can make a vast difference to a business. Choosing the right telephone package can make the difference between profit and loss for many businesses. Why use a standard telephone line when VoIP internet telephony is available? Why lose potential clients because you are busy when a virtual assistant package is waiting for you? And why pay for a bank of switchboard operators when a virtual switchboard can recognise incoming calls and divert callers automatically?

With energy prices rising and margins being squeezed it is good to know that internet telephony at least has enabled businesses to cut one cost by a significant amount. Just take a look at our case studies to see how much can be saved.

Looking at disaster recovery, the ability to dial 999, help lines and a host of internet features does lead us to the thought that in general telephones are a force for good. It is a shame that in the hands of a few they aren’t used that way.