Posted on 01/16/2006 7:46:31 PM PST by nickcarraway
The rapid growth in popularity of VoIP phone service is unlikely to slow anytime soon. Just in the corporate arena alone, VoIP phone lines are projected to grow from about 39 million to 532 million during the next four years, according to market research firm The Radicati Group.
And that doesn’t include home VoIP lines.
Cost is the primary driving force behind VoIP’s popularity. VoIP service is not subject to the taxes and fees that come with regular phone service, according to the FCC website. Also, long-distance charges are greatly reduced or eliminated because information can travel any distance for free over the Internet.
But money isn’t the only reason why consumers and businesses are making the switch to VoIP. The new generation of phone service offers features and functional advantages that are luring more and more people away from traditional phone service.
Portability is one factor. Relocating a VoIP phone line is much easier, and cheaper, than moving a traditional phone line, said Peter Karlson, founder of tech consulting company NeuEon, in a recent Thomas Dialog NewsEdge article.
Also, the phone number associated with a VoIP line can move anywhere where there’s a broadband connection, and can be assigned any area code regardless of geography.
Value-added features such as call waiting, voice mail, caller ID, call blocking, and online access to voice mail and call records typically are much cheaper with a VoIP line than a traditional one.
The cost-savings of using VoIP are making the new type of telephony popular, even though there are still wrinkles to be ironed out. For example, sound quality can be a problem with VoIP calling.
Another issue, mostly now resolved, is emergency 911 dialing; since VoIP lines are not tied to a particular geographic location, emergency services may not be able to determine where a 911 call originated.
A bigger problem with VoIP is that it does not work during power outages. VoIP requires routers and other devices that need electricity to operate. Battery power can be used during short outages, but day-long losses of power are still a problem.
Despite its problems, VoIP service has emerged as the next generation of telephony in the U.S. and around the world. Outside the U.S., one example of a place where VoIP is taking off is Taiwan.
In a recent Thomson Dialog NewsEdge article, a Taiwanese professor named Mao Chi-Kuo—who teaches at National Chiao Tung University—described the benefits of VoIP service for Taiwanese consumers and businesses.
According to Kao, many Taiwanese consumers have switched to VoIP because of cost savings; they now can place calls to the U.S. for about NT$0.32 per minute, a significant savings over Chunghwa Telecom’s rate of between NT$1.5 and NT$5.6.
Kao said that leading telecommunications operators British Telecom and NTT of Japan are aggressively promoting their VoIP services in an effort to transition completely to Internet-based telephony by 2010.
Responding to this trend, some Taiwanese fixed-line operators are launching their own VoIP services in order to stay competitive. For example, Taiwan Fixed Network recently launched Packet Phone—a service aimed at those who frequently make land-to-mobile calls.
Packet Phone rates range from NT$3.5 to NT$4 per minute; better than traditional phone service, but still not quite as good as the rates offered by more established VoIP providers.
Just don't have a power outage :)
Easily solved with VoIP cell phones.
No, I don't see the point of those either.
After 15 years of intermittent service with Ameritech & SBC I was told that I'll probably be dead before my neighborhood gets rewired. Good riddance.
I have a son that got the hardware interface for VoIP almost a year ago.
The linksys stuff crapped out last week and the company is only willing to provide the one-year warranty "thru a dealer" Hos source for the box has already gone out of business.
The box has the Linksys logo/label on it and has the one year warranty label on the bottom too and yet the company is unwilling to honor it.
There must be many people in exactly this situation.
What are the laws requiring companies to honor their warranties?
A $100 box is not worth getting a lawyer over.
No clue about the laws regarding warranties. Whatever they are, you're right, it's not worth a $100 box.
Linksys' stuff is generally hit-or-miss. They have a great wireless router, but that's about the only product I'd buy from them. I'm sorry to hear that you got screwed, and hopefully someone more knowledgable than I can help you out.
I have had VoIP for two years with no problem. packet8. Total cost ~$20 a month and includes all long distance. I regularly call my son in Iraq
We have an old AT&T dial phone on our wall that was new when we installed it in 1983. It was made to look like a phone circa 1910 or so. Still works like a champ. The old phone system was really engineered for reliability.
We get a real kick out of watching our kids friends try to figure out how to operate a dial phone! That's the main reason we keep it around. Of course, it's a pain when we get a system that wants us to Press 1 and we have to scramble to find the cordless handset which always seems to be buried in the couch cushions.
Does he still have the box? If it is really still under warranty I'd have no qualms about taking it back even if you have to purchase an identical model at Walmart or Best Buy and return the broken one with the receipt. (Make sure the upcs match) It accomplishes the same thing and you get the benefit of a no hassle warranty. I never send anything back to a manufacturer unless I absolutely have to. I don't know anyone who has 4-8 weeks to wait to get a replacement.
That is awesome. If I were traveling I'd use that all the time. The idea that you can be anywhere in the world and have a local number in Kansas if you like is just so beautiful. A conman's delight but a delight all the same.
Ok that sounds cool. Do you wi-fi into the internet connections anywhere in the world or do you have to have a hard line?
Once it gets really popular, the politicians will find a way to make money from it. Taxing the Internet? Watch the fun really begin.
I have no home phone. I just use my cell and when I want to call friends overseas, I use Skype.
It's free to talk to those who are also running Skype and I think about 2.7 cents per minute to most of the landlines on the globe. I've hooked up a chordless phone to a phone adaptor, so I can roam around the house and don't have to be near a computer.
I don't know if I'll have a landline again.
I dumped my landline two years ago and went straight cell. The landline was a waste of $30 bucks a month. Picked up another free cell phone for a house number, so I don't have to give my personal cell number out to anyone, pay the add-a-phone fee of $10 a month and haven't looked back. Have cable for the internet.
That is neat. Did you make the cantenna out of pringles can? lol
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.