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1. Can I Keep the Same Phone Number?
2. What type of Internet connection do I need?
3. How Does It Sound?
4. Will I Really Save Money?
5. What if the Power Goes Out?
6. What About 911?
7. Why Do I Need Free Long Distance if I Get Free Long Distance from My Cell Phone?
8. Do I Need a Computer?
9. Do I Have to Talk Through My Computer?
10. How Does VoIP Perform?
1. Can I Keep the Same Phone Number?
Yes, with most services you can keep your existing telephone number. It can take up to ten business days to switch your existing number from your traditional telephone company to your new internet telephone service provider. During that time, your new provider gives you a temporary number so you can start dialing out over your new service while receiving calls over your traditional telephone provider line.
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Rarely, some traditional telephone providers will not transfer the number to your internet telephone provider. Technical reasons are usually blamed, but those excuses are wearing thin, and most traditional telephone providers now realize they have to switch numbers when requested. If this becomes an issue for you, look for an internet telephone provider that has a better technical relationship to your existing telephone company.
We do suggest trying out VoIP before disconnecting your existing traditional phone service.
2. What type of Internet connection do I need?
VoIP services require a high bandwidth to deliver quality phone service, it is suggested to use a broadband connection or DSL. Dial up connections are possibel but their sound quality stinks.
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3. How Does It Sound?
Better than expected. Using an VoIP to call a regular telephone drops the audio quality down to the level of a regular telephone call, which, frankly, is pretty low. Conversations between two people using the same service will almost always be better than a regular telephone call.
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4. Will I Really Save Money?
Only one group will not save money with VoIP: people without broadband service who have no extra features (like Caller ID or Call Waiting) on their phones and make no long distance calls whatsoever. Every other consumer will save money using an internet telephone provider.
If you already have a broadband service provider, you will save money with an VoIP. Period.
Brand-name VoIP service starts as low as $6 per month. No traditional phone company holdover charges less than $20 per month per line after all of the assorted fees and taxes. While the entry-level VoIP service will limit the number of minutes included in your monthly service before charging by the minute, unlimited minute plans (including long distance calls to Canada, and sometimes Mexico) start at $20 per month.
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5. What if the Power Goes Out?
You're without a phone, unless you've taken some extra steps not necessary with traditional telephones. But if you use cordless phones, you're out of luck when the power goes out, even with a traditional telephone company.
Traditional telephones receive power from the telephone line itself, sent out by the telephone company central office. But cordless phones require more power and can't get enough from the telephone line, which is why they all include a separate power cord for the base station.
Prepared people plug their broadband modem, router, and all other internet telephony equipment into a battery backup unit. Widely available for computers, these units are now restyled for broadband phone equipment use. For a few dollars, lack of power will not mean lack of your internet telephone.
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6. What About 911?
No lack of headlines lately, is there?
As of November 30, 2005, the FCC is requiring all VoIP service providers to offer E911 service in all of their coverage areas. Many of the providers are now meeting this requirement. We suggest that you read the fine print concerning the VoIP provider you chose to determine how they handle their E911 service.
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7. Why Do I Need Free Long Distance if I Get Free Long Distance from My Cell Phone?
Maybe you don't need an VoIP for long distance if you're happy with your cell phone. But most users find cell phone bills have a way of surprising them now and then, after accidentally going over their allotment of minutes and triggering extra charges.
Need a better reason? Many users enjoy having all of their personal-number voice mails delivered to them via email (even at work, if you list that address), a service many broadband phone companies provide.
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8. Do I Need a Computer?
While very few homes without a computer have a broadband network connection, it is possible to use a VoIP service without a computer. The initial setup, however, must be done via the Web, which does require a computer.
The answer is technically, no, but realistically, yes, you do need a computer.
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9. Do I Have to Talk Through My Computer?
Only if you want to. For peer-to-peer connections, such as Skype, you must go through a computer. We call these computer-centric broadband phone services. Phone-centric providers, like Packet8, don't require a computer in the loop and use your existing telephone to make and receive calls.
This distinction rarely appears in the press reports about VoIP, and it's a critical difference. Skype and other computer-centric services will rarely, if ever, be considered as the best choice for the only telephone in a household. However, some of the features in Skype truly extend the notion of a telephone.
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10. How Does VoIP Perform?
Quite well, actually.
Seriously, VoIP relies on a similar network for making phone connections as the one traditional telephone companies have used for years. Every long distance call for decades has gone over a network similar to the internet, if not actually segments of the "real" internet. The difference is that the physical wires connecting your home telephone to your service provider are not the pair of copper wires installed by the traditional telephone company, but your broadband network connection.
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Summary
People like VoIP when they try it. The added features, included free from the various VoIP service providers, match and sometimes overwhelm the services traditional telephone companies offer. VoIP providers have developed more innovations in less than 10 years than traditional phone companies have in over 100 years. Everyone leaves home sooner or later, and thousands of people just like you are weaning themselves from traditional phone service every week.
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