When you are looking for affordable and quality VOIP service it is sometimes hard to know which VOIP carrier to choose. They all claim to be the best thing since sliced bread or canned beer, but how do you separate the marketing hype from reality?

The first thing you need to look at is your high speed Internet connection at home. Be fully aware that the VOIP provider has absolutely no control over the quality or reliability of your high speed Internet connection, despite the fact that any VOIP service relies heavily on the stability and reliability of that connection. If your home DSL or cable service is not rock solid, stable and reliable, you are not going to be happy with any VOIP service you get at any price, regardless of the brand name.

When comparing different VOIP service providers, you need to look at the features they offer with the service. Features is another category where VOIP providers come out on top by a wide margin over traditional telephone services. VOIP providers offer many features that regular land line phone companies either charge extra for or are not able to offer at all. Standard features include things like make unlimited calls to other users of the same VOIP provider, to make unlimited calls locally and in the domestic US, caller ID, and voicemail. They may also offer other features as well, but make sure that you are not paying extra for features that you will only use once in a blue moon.

VOIP service providers have been rolling out “Enhanced 911� or E911 where calls are sent to a 911 network which then connects to a local 911 dispatching center. With E911, emergency dispatchers are able to see the callers location and call back numbers. If you are considering aVOIP service that does not offer the Enhanced 911 services, run in the other direction, since this is now a requirement in the US.

VOIP service can be very cost effective for your home or small business. It uses your high speed Internet connection to make and receive phone calls. But that comes with its own set of problems. For example, remember we talked earlier about the reliability of yourhigh speed Internet connection? That becomes even more important because if your high speed Internet connection goes down, so does your ability to make and receive phone calls. Again, this is not the VOIP provider’s problem since they assume that you already have a very reliable and stable Internet connection.

If you live off the beaten track and the only high speed Internet connection available to you is satellite, don’t even think about VOIP service. You are not going to be happy because with today’s residential satellite technology, it is simply not fast enough to provide reliable VOIP service.

The cost effectiveness of VOIP service cannot be argued. With a traditional phone line from the local telephone company, you are paying about $25 a month just for dial tone. Now compare that to VOIP service, where for less than that, you also get unlimited long distance, voice mail, caller ID, and perhaps other features as well.

Visit this Voip-Digital Home Phone Service site for more information about the providers that are the most cost effective option for reliable VOIP service when compared against the other leading contenders.

Related Posts

• How Does VoIP Work? (0)
• Vonnage Headed In New Direction (0)

America’s fourth largest wireless carrier, T-Mobile USA, has started selling its own VoIP home phone service in Dallas, Texas and Seattle, Washington, directly challenging incumbent landline carriers for the first time.

The new service, which is available exclusively to T-Mobile wireless customers, allows subscribers to connect any home phone to a special device which routes calls over the internet. It costs just $10 per month for unlimited calling, and customers can keep their existing home phone numbers, the company said in a statement.

This should make T-Mobile more appealing to customers who want to bundle multiple services with a single provider, and aren’t ready to cut off their landline phone subscriptions.

T-Mobile’s VoIP router is now available for $49.99, after a rebate, and an optional cordless phone is available for $59.99.

T-Mobile is challenging both AT&T; and Verizon, which provide fixed-line service in different parts of the Dallas area, as well as Qwest Communications International, Seattle’s incumbent telecom.

Related Posts

• Mobile Phones: The Distant Future (0)
• Caller ID Spoofing – Friend Or For? (0)
• Why You Need SIP Protocol For Voice Over IP (0)
• Free Voice Over IP Phone Service (1)
• How Does VoIP Work? (13)

by Jim Barthold
Tues. May 13, 2008

Vonage Holdings has withstood a flurry of patent infringement and other legal action which pretty much brought the company to its knees. Now it’s trying to re-energize itself as it transforms from a VoIP provider focused on cheaper voice services to a VoIP provider with a package of broadband capabilities.

When Vonage started, people needed a cheap voice alternative that voice-over-IP provided. That vision was changing before the company was distracted by a series of devastating lawsuits. Now it’s coming around again to recognize that today’s consumers can get cheap phone almost anywhere; they want features and services that make that voice more attractive, said Jeffrey Citron, Vonage chairman.

Vonage cut a wholesale DSL partnership deal with Covad and is preparing to launch a “prosumer” offering, Vonage-Pro, that takes the VoIP provider’s base products into the commercial space for business users.

“We have quire a few customers who call up … looking to buy the Vonage voice solution but they don’t have broadband. This led us to talk to Covad about wholesaling their platform and then putting together a Vonage bundled with allowed these customers to buy both digital voice and the broadband they’re asking for (and need for VoIP),” Citron said.

The partnership with Covad gives Vonage a nationwide broadband footprint so it’s no longer dependent on marketing to customers who already have DSL service, generally attached as part of a phone bundle, or cable modem service, which increasingly is bundled with digital voice. It also opens up a market of satellite subscribers who have no high-speed Internet or voice bundle.

“We’ve been talking to them about it for quite some time and we’re thrilled they’re finally ready to go to market with broadband,” said Lisa Graham, senior vice president and general manager of Covad’s wholesale division.

To be fair, Vonage has been a bit preoccupied. The company was hammered by multiple copyright infringement lawsuits from the likes of Verizon, AT&T; and Sprint and took a beating in court. For a time, it appeared it was over for Vonage, but about this time last year the company developed a new strategy on which to focus and start anew. Since then Vonage has recorded three straight quarter of operating cash flow and positive EBITDA for two quarters said Citron and is working on a proposal to refinance its debt.

The company announced what Citron believed are good first quarter results.

“There was a point when I first took over after the loss of the Verizon (patent) case and there was a lot of uncertainty in our future and there were a ton of things we had to fix,” he said. Those were not minor fixes: “Fix the fundamentals of the business, fix marketing, fix cost management, fix customer care then strengthen the core relationship with the customers and grow from that core. Today’s announcements with Covad and Vonnage-Pro (demonstrate) we’re starting to get good traction in the marketplace and that’s going to lead to accelerated growth in the second half of the year. At this point we have a lot of the historic problems behind us.”

Vonage-Pro is ahead, providing a package that bundles most residentially oriented Vonnage services and features into packages for business consumers.

The company is also going to spend money, he promised.

“This past quarter we spend about 27 percent of our revenue on marketing (and) we expect at the end of the year we’ll be spending between 30 and 32 percent. The company has $150 million in the bank and we’re going to use that money,” he said.

Compare Vonnage to other providers to get the best deal for your home or business.

Related Posts

• How Does VoIP Work? (0)
• Caller ID Spoofing – Friend Or For? (0)
• Why You Need SIP Protocol For Voice Over IP (0)
• Free Voice Over IP Phone Service (1)
• How Does VoIP Work? (13)

When you are looking for affordable and quality VOIP service it is sometimes hard to know which VOIP carrier to choose. They all claim to be the best thing since sliced bread or canned beer, but how do you separate the marketing hype from reality?

The first thing you need to look at is your high speed Internet connection at home. Be fully aware that the VOIP provider has absolutely no control over the quality or reliability of your high speed Internet connection, despite the fact that any VOIP service relies heavily on the stability and reliability of that connection. If your home DSL or cable service is not rock solid, stable and reliable, you are not going to be happy with any VOIP service you get at any price, regardless of the brand name.

When comparing different VOIP service providers, you need to look at the features they offer with the service. Features is another category where VOIP providers come out on top by a wide margin over traditional telephone services. VOIP providers offer many features that regular land line phone companies either charge extra for or are not able to offer at all. Standard features include things like make unlimited calls to other users of the same VOIP provider, to make unlimited calls locally and in the domestic US, caller ID, and voicemail. They may also offer other features as well, but make sure that you are not paying extra for features that you will only use once in a blue moon.

VOIP service providers have been rolling out “Enhanced 911” or E911 where calls are sent to a 911 network which then connects to a local 911 dispatching center. With E911, emergency dispatchers are able to see the caller’s location and call back numbers. If you are considering a VOIP service that does not offer the Enhanced 911 services, run in the other direction, since this is now a requirement in the US.

VOIP service can be very cost effective for your home or small business. It uses your high speed Internet connection to make and receive phone calls. But that comes with its own set of problems. For example, remember we talked earlier about the reliability of your high speed Internet connection? That becomes even more important because if your high speed Internet connection goes down, so does your ability to make and receive phone calls. Again, this is not the VOIP provider’s problem since they assume that you already have a very reliable and stable Internet connection.

If you live off the beaten track and the only high speed Internet connection available to you is satellite, don’t even think about VOIP service. You are not going to be happy because with today’s residential satellite technology, it is simply not fast enough to provide reliable VOIP service.

The cost effectiveness of VOIP service cannot be argued. With a traditional phone line from the local telephone company, you are paying about $25 a month just for dial tone. Now compare that to VOIP service, where for less than that, you also get unlimited long distance, voice mail, caller ID, and perhaps other features as well.

Visit this Voip-Digital Home Phone Service site for more information about the providers that are the most cost effective option for reliable VOIP service when compared against the other leading contenders.

Related Posts

• How Does VoIP Work? (13)
• Caller ID Spoofing – Friend Or For? (0)
• Why You Need SIP Protocol For Voice Over IP (0)
• Free Voice Over IP Phone Service (1)
• T-Mobile USA Enters Home Phone Market with New VoIP Service (0)