Is VoIP Better?
Posted by: info | July 17, 2007
As Voip (Voice over Internet Protocol) continues to grow, many consumers are wandering which is better, local telephone or VoIP phone service. VoIP is telephone service through a high-speed Internet connection. Understanding what and how VoIP can do for your calling needs is the best way to determine which service is best.
View the article, advantages and disadvantages of VoIP to learn the basic difference between services. A good rule of thumb to follow to determine which service is best, is to learn about your calling needs.
Do you make a lot of long distance calls? Just a few years ago, consumers paid nearly 0.35 cents a minute for long distance calls. As competition grew from the deregulation of long distance companies, the rates got much cheaper. Now it is very uncommon for a consumer to pay more than 0.10 cents per minute. VoIP can save money on long distance phone calls. Most VoIP companies, if not all, don’t charge any additional money for long distance calls. All calls within the USA are considered local calls.
VoIP can also save consumers money on calling features. Most VoIP phone providers will include all calling features such as voice mail, caller id, call waiting etc. at no additional cost. Each of the features can cost up to $7 more with traditional local phone service. However, many local phone companies are now becoming more competitive and offering discount packages which include calling features.
VoIp can not be used without a high speed Internet connection such as cable or DSL. If the high speed connection gets disconnected, dropped or has any service problems your phone service will not work. So you have to keep your DSL or cable paid or you lose phone service. Cable and DSL will be down more than traditional phone service. However, these connections are very reliable and rarely are out for long periods of time.
VoIP can also keep your telephone number private. VoIP phone numbers won’t be listed in the local telephone directory. It will be hard for others to find your telephone number. Some people actually like this. This also helps steer off the dreaded telemarketers. However, this does make it harder for emergency officials to track or contact you.
In general, consumers are still working out all the issues of having VoIP services and options. If you have DSL through a phone company, then VoIP may have to be purchased with them to become cost effective. A lot of phone companies will not sell their consumers dsl or high speed Internet without local phone service. In my opinion, this seems to be almost like a monopoly. Consumers should have access to services available in their area regardless of purchase. The beef on this is it seems as if VoIP offered through cable and phone companies cost more than through independent VoIP service providers. This would be like a food service not selling you a hamburger without first purchasing fries or a drink.
This makes it very difficult to pick the cheapest services available to you. For example; VoIP, satellite TV and DSL may offer the lowest prices. However, if you can’t purchase the DSL without buying phone service, VoIP may not be very useful to you. Cable Internet is all most always cheaper combined with cable services. This may be a burden if you want satellite TV. This makes it almost impossible to buy all three of these items from different companies.
Posted in: Telephone, General |
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