A Business Fix

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What You Need To Know About Internet Phone Services
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.

But is it any good? Sound quality, reliability, the works?
>From all reports, the sound quality and reception is akin to
that you can expect from a good cell phone. You'll have
occasional drops and hiccups, but no worse than you'd see if
you were using a cell and moving.

Can I use my VOiP phone number when I'm traveling? In a
word, yes. You'll have your phone with you wherever you plug
in your 'box', whether it's your living room or a hotel room
in Naples.

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.

Phone number portability also means that wherever you are,
your phone number will be the same. This can be a great boon
when traveling. Wherever you are, you can simply plug in
your box, plug a handset into it and you'll be reachable at
your usual number.

The portability that causes that disadvantage, however, is
its own advantage. It means that you can, with very few
exceptions, keep your telephone number for life, no matter
where in the country you move.

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