The Pros and Cons of VOIP
Vonage, AT&T, Sprint and many other providers are getting in the act. The act to provide local and long distance service via the internet. There are many pros and cons.
VoIP can facilitate tasks that may be more difficult to achieve using traditional phone networks:
- Incoming phone calls can be automatically routed to your VoIP phone, regardless of where you are connected to the network. Take your VoIP phone with you on a trip, and wherever you connect to the Internet, you can receive incoming calls.
- Free phone numbers for use with VoIP are available in the USA, UK and other countries from organizations such as VoIP User.
- Call center agents using VoIP phones can work from anywhere with a sufficiently fast Internet connection.
- Many VoIP packages include PSTN features that most telcos normally charge extra for, or may be unavailable from your local telco, such as 3-way calling, call forwarding, automatic redial, etc.
VoIP allows users to travel anywhere in the world and still make and receive phone calls:
- Subscribers of phone-line replacement services can make and receive local phone calls regardless of their location. For example, if a user has a New York City phone number and is traveling in Europe and someone calls the phone number, it will ring in Europe. Conversely, if a call is made from Europe to New York City, it will be treated as a local call. Of course, there must be a connection to the Internet e.g. WiFi to make all of this possible.
- Users of Instant Messenger based VoIP services can also travel anywhere in the world and make and receive phone calls.
- VoIP phones can integrate with other services available over the Internet, including video conversation, message or data file exchange in parallel with the conversation, audio conferencing, managing address books and passing information about whether others (e.g. friends or colleagues) are available online to interested parties.
Some of the negatives related to VOIP is related top emergency calls. The nature of IP makes it difficult to geographically locate network users. Emergency calls, therefore, cannot easily be routed to a nearby call center, and are impossible on some VoIP systems. Moreover, in the event that the caller is unable to give an address, emergency services may be unable to locate them in any other way. Following the lead of mobile phone operators , several VoIP carriers are already implementing a technical work-around.
For instance, one large VOIP carrier requires the registration of the physical address the VOIP line will be used at. When you dial 911 (or the applicable emergency number for your country), they will route it to the appropriate local system. They also maintain their own emergency call center that will take non-routable 911 calls (made, for example, from a software based service that is not tied to any particular physical location) and then will manually route your call once learning your physical location.
The United States government had set a deadline, requiring VoIP carriers to implement E911, however, the deadline is being appealed by several of the leading VoIP companies. (Wikipedia)
With all the pros and cons to consider, please check out all of the resources here so that you can make the best decision for your home or business.
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