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VOIP Phone Services - A Quick Overview
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.

In addition, all of them also offer a number of associated
services like 'virtual' phone numbers that let you list a
local phone in nearly any part of the country without the
need to have a local line there. If your mother lives in
Florida, for example, and you live in New York, for as
little as $4.95 a month, you can have a virtual Florida
number that she can use to call you - saving her long
distance charges.

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.

That means that if your son is attending college in Atlanta
and you live in Albequerque, New Mexico, you can add a
virtual phone number with an Atlanta exchange for as little
as $4.95 a month. That allows him to make a local call to
reach you, without costing you an arm and a leg in collect
call charges.

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.

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 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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