How To Know If VOIP Phone Service Is Right For You

It seems like everywhere you go these days, people are talking about the VOIP phone service they got and how much they like it. Many college students do not even have a regular telephone in their dorm room or apartment, but instead they opt for VOIP phone services. What is all the hubbub? Did you ever feel like you were missing something and did not know what it was?

VOIP might be a good thing for you but you need to be sure you understand what it is and what it is not. VOIP phone service has disadvantages that you need to be aware of so you can decide if VOIP is for you.

What VOIP does is allow you to make and receive phone calls over your high-speed Internet connection. There, that is it, that is the entire idea behind it. But now let's look a little bit deeper into what that actually means and whether it is right for you.

First of all, not all parts of the country can get a local phone number. If you live in a rural area, chances are that a LOCAL telephone number for your VOIP service is not going to be available. What that means is that if someone local wants to call you, even your next door neighbor, they may have to make a long distance call to reach you.

Yes, you can "port" your existing phone number to your new VOIP service, but there have been so many horror stories about how the phone companies screws that up that I would not recommend that option. It SHOULD be simple, it should be seamless, but like many other things, the reality of what happens does not reflect the simplicity of doing it.

You also need a high-speed Internet conection and this is not provided with the VOIP service from any of the VOIP providers. They assume you already have this. In most cases they are right as the price of home DSL and home cable Internet prices keep going down. But even if you already have high-speed Internet access, you should carefully consider the following two points:

1. A high-speed Internet connection does NOT include satellite. If you have a satellite high-speed Internet connection, do not consider VOIP because you will not be happy. Sure they will SELL it to you but with a satellite high-speed connection, you will not be happy and you will sound like you are talking from the bottom of a bathtub in best case.

2. How reliable is your high-speed Internet connection? If it is not reliable, if it is iffy, if it has frequent outages or if you are getting a very slow speed, perhaps due to the distance limitations of DSL where you are at the very end of the service area, VOIP is not going to work well for you. Remember, if your Internet connection goes out, so does your VOIP service.

Assuming none of these disadvantages depict your situation, then you are probably in very good shape for great VOIP phone service. So why is VOIP better? The quality is at least as good and frequently better than regular phone service. The big reason that people are flocking to VOIP phone service is for the financial considerations. Basic phone service from the phone company costs about $25 per line per month, and that gives you only a line with dial tone, probably unlimited local calling. For the same price (or even less with some VOIP providers), you get unlimited calling locally, unlimited calling in the entire continental US (some also include Canada and/or Puerto Rico), you get voice mail, call waiting, and caller ID. Even if you do not make any long distance calls, the extra features alone that come with basic VOIP phone service are extra with your phone company.

Consider joining the VOIP phone service bandwagon today, but like anything else, be sure you do all your homework first to make sure VOIP is right for you.

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