A Business Fix

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VOIP - An Alternative Phone Service
by Fawn Rawson
http://www.frphone.com

Vonage, Lingo, VoiceWing, CallVantage - if these names
aren't familiar to you yet, they will be before long. They
are the top four current VOIP (voice over internet protocol)
service providers.

Two of them, Lingo and Vonage, are new companies in the
business of communications. The other two are new services
offered by communications giants Verizon and AT&T. All of
them promise to give you unlimited long distance and local
phone service for prices ranging from $24.95 to $49.95 a
month.

What are the advantages of switching from a conventional
land line to VOIP service? The major advantage is cost. By
utilizing your high speed internet connection to carry voice
messages, you can virtually eliminate all long distance
charges. It will cost you no more to call from Boston to San
Francisco than it will to call from Boston to Worcester,
less than 100 miles away.

What equipment do I need to take advantage of VoIP phone?
You'll need either a DSL or high-speed cable internet
service and a telephony device - or the 'box'. Vonage
provides you with the box when you sign up for an account
with them. Simply plug your phone and your computer into to
box, and you're ready to go.

Is VoIP reliable phone service? VoIP has been around as a
low-cost way to make phone calls from your computer for a
lot of years. In general, your VoIP service will work as
long as a) your internet connection is up and running and b)
your electrical service is on. It won't operate during a
power outage, and losing your DSL or cable will also put
your phone out of service. If your internet carrier goes
down even occasionally, you'll want to keep regular phone
service at least as a backup - or get an uninterruptable
power supply.

Cell phones, however, offer a major advantage that VOIP
doesn't - yet. In order to use VOIP, you need a source of
electricity to power the 'box' into which your telephone is
plugged. The convenience of cell phone portability gives
people a good reason to overlook little inconveniences like
the occasional lost signal or scratchy line.

VOIP's major advantage at this point is cost. That pro is
countered by sound reception that isn't quite up to voice
line standards, and the inconvenience of losing your phone
service in case of a power outage.

However, the technology advances every day. Vonage, the
acknowledged independent leader in the field, reports new
subscribers at the rate of 1500 per month. That sort of
growth sparks further advances nearly every day. Expect that
VOIP will advance at least as quickly as the acceptance of
cell phones as a fact of modern life.

There is one other disadvantage - and one other advantage -
worth mentioning. The disadvantage is in the way that VOIP
handles the 911 emergency response system. It doesn't.
Because VOIP numbers are essentially portable, they aren't
tied into the 911 emergency response system. While most
major VOIP services offer some option to allow the use of
911 to reach emergency services, the calls are routed to a
central dispatch rather than to an ERT center. Emergency
operators reached that way will have no way to determine
location from a 911 call made on a VOIP line.

The portability does come with some disadvantages, though.
911 services don't work with all VOIP phone services, for
example. Each service has its own policy, and even those
that do offer 911 availability don't offer the Emergency
Response system that we're used to. If you use your VOIP to
call 911, the operator will not have your location, for
instance.

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