Can anyone argue for or against VOIP (voice over Internet protocol) versus standard phone service.?
Question by Harlan B: Can anyone argue for or against VOIP (voice over Internet protocol) versus standard phone service.?
Do I save money by routing phone calls through the Internet. Do I have to use my laptop and a headset to answer or make calls or can we pick up any phone in the house and make and answer calls? Is the technology to new to even consider now? I am confused.
Best answer:
Answer by Irish1952
The main thing that I have heard against it is that if you ISP goes down, you don’t have a phone.
What do you think? Answer below!
I would argue for it. You already have the internet so it saves that way. You can choose any area code making it cheaper for the majority of your circle of friends. One drawback is that it’s a little hard to track a 911 call so memorize the local police number.
You can rig your VOIP (I’ve done it with Vonage) to make it seem as though every phone outlet is now a LAN drop. It requires re-running CAT V 100 base-t cable throughout your house. If you don’t know how to do it already, don’t bother.
If you feel froggy, I’ve cited a website that could be useful.
I move around a lot, and my home phone number never changes – so friends don’t forget me =) Go with VOIP.
We have internet phone and we are extremely happy with it. We are able to use any phone becuase the box is in the basement and the rest of the phone jacks are routed from that.
There is a short wait after we dial before the call is actually routed and we have been cut off a few times, but nothing major. Once in a great while the circuts are busy and I have to dial again a minute later. True, if the internet goes down we’re without phone but I don’t think that has happened to us yet when we wanted to use the phone.
We have registered with 911 so there is no problem with worrying about that.
In our case we save money because most of our family lives far away and we don’t have long-distance charges.
If we ever move we can take our phone number with us and never have to change it again. We can also take our box with us on vacation and as long as we have access to hi-speed internet we have our phone with us.
VOIP is the best ever. It hooks into your regular telephone so you can’t tell a difference! The only thing is when dialing you have to dial the area code (atleast for Vonage that’s what I use). When you get voicemails you can also opt to receive email notification which lets you listen to the message. You pay no long distance to US and Canada (they have different plans too). VOIP is definately not too new to consider. As long as you have your high speed internet connection you have phone service and no long distance bill.
Pros – huge cost savings
Cons – if you have a power outage or your internet service goes down, you lose the phone service. Occasionally during a bad storm my sound quality will get a little “staticy”.
no need for a laptop and headset although it is coll that you CAN check your messages online from any computer. Messages are saved as wave files so if you want to save or even forward a message it easily done. If you plug your VOIP box into one of the house phone jacks then you can use any phone jack in the house. I have a cordless that came with 3 handsets, so I plug direclty into the VOIP box and just place the handsets throughout the house.
Overall I strongly recommed the VOIP, with vonage I have 2 unlimited voice lines and a third dedicated fax line for about $ 65/month. I used to pay close to that for one line with BellSouth.
All the info u need is here.