Phil Britt at Information Week provides us with six reasons you might want to avoid VoIP. I personally don't think any of the issues he raises are showstoppers, but they are things you have to take into account. After the jump, I'll respond to each point.
Voice quality and reliability are mission critical: A lot of this comes down to testing throughly. If voice quality and reliability are mission critical, then any VoIP solution you deploy or used should be tested heavily to ensure it meets your needs.
Power or high-speed Internet connections are unreliable: Landlines phones can also be unreliable as well, though perhaps less so than your power and moreso than your Internet connection.
The enterprise needs features VoIP doesn't provide: The only example the author provides is E911. However, with the right service provider, E911 is less of an issue. And you can always design a VoIP system so that 911 calls are routed over a traditional landline. That would reduce/eliminate the need for this to be dealt with over VoIP. With a lack of other examples, I have to call BS on this particular point.
High-speed Internet isn't available: There is nothing preventing you from using VoIP internally and still connecting to the PSTN over regular PSTN lines. It requires working with a clever VoIP solutions provider, but rest assured it's possible.
High-speed Internet usage near capacity: See previous points. If you test throughly, you shouldn't see a problem. That being said, if your bandwidth is at near capacity, you're likely having issues with other protocols as well. But, if you're using PSTN lines to ultimately connect those calls, who cares how much Internet bandwidth you are using?
Capital costs: Many enterprises aren't rushing to implement VoIP, but rather looking at VoIP when their current telecom equipment has depreciated off the books. Smaller companies can much more easily do wholesale replacements. Larger companies are a tough nut to crack.
What Do You Think?How might you respond to these points? Leave your thoughts in the comments.
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I understand the complicated business VoIP systems are different than what we now have at home, but we’ve been quite pleased with the quality of service and the cost savings. It took about three seconds to hook up once we got our adapter, and works off our old regular home telephones as well as on the laptop with the softphone. We get E911 with our provider, and our internet connection is reliable. We’re canceling our land line – for now, of course, we still have our cell phones too. But traditional land lines are just too expensive now compared to the service and features we get with VoIP. It’s obvious this is the future of telecommunications and we’ve invested in it, and already made some money.
When SunRocket 200k plus subcribers suddenly went without a phone service, VoIP industry was rocked. People business and personal lives were affected. Then Allo followed suit. Vonage too was in the news not because of their great service but because of their recent loss to Verizon’s lawsuit.
I need this! No matter how fast my internet connection is, how good the quality of my Onesuite VoIP calls are, I almost always run into this kind of problem. Background noises pisses me more than anything else. As often is the case, I just tell the person on the other line to call back or me calling back after an hour or so.
People are now thinking if going VoIP all the way is worth the money they’re will save or eventually will get burn and loss $$$ in the end with the unused months of service just like what happened to former Sunrocket subscribers.
Onesuite, a prepaid phone card company added VoIP in their services and made a couple of points for those who do not want going VoIP all the way. Onesuite VoIP is never intended to replace the traditional pots line. Onesuite Voip paying scheme is pay as you go meaning you only pay for the minutes you actually use.
Let’s talk about Skype who popularized VoIP recently having all kinds of problems from connection issues, to worldwide downtime and now virus attacks. Good thing its own by Google.
In the end, after all these VoIP problems, I think VoIP is here to stay and eventually capture major share competing with PSTN.
Business VoIP and Home VoIP all have the same issues, albeit on a smaller scale.
I am familiar with Onesuite. I use them for my Fax line. I don’t need their calling services so much, but it’s nice to have it as an option.
Choosing the VOIP service provider is critical for enterprise and small business. If you business had relied on Sunrocket, it could have been a disaster. As for consumers, using voip at home has become just a alternative for cell phone these days.
When you’ve got the local cable company and the local phone company offering competitive bundles for local and domestic long distance, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense for the average consumer to make the jump. Unless you’re really hard up for the cash, it just doesn’t make sense.
The only place I can see it making sense is if you make a lot of international calls. VoIP might make sense then.
As someone who has worked in telecom for the last 20 years, the complexities of VoIP are worth the effort in cost savings and enhanced features. Unfortunately, the recent VoIP disasters, the Sunrocket meltdown and the Vonage debacle is likely to give this entire segment a bad name. Pity. There are really good companies that are great options – like Lingo and Net2phone. I would guess this whole mess will set back this segment back and the real losers are consumers.
I don’t think there’s any question tha VoIP will win out in the long term. The problem is that it can’t win out on low cost alone. The VoIP has to be wrapped around some value-real value that can’t be obtained through traditional TDM telephony.
Our phone lines were recently found to be faulty in the house. Qwest, our local provider, wanted $85 just to show up and whatever other charges they incurred in fixing our phone line. We rent the house we live in and our landlord will not pay to repair the line. I am considering getting a VoIP line because my 12 year old son is home in the afternoons and (GASP!) he does not have a cell phone. Is it worth it?
Erin:
I answered your question here:
http://www.phoneboy.com/node/1835
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