Have you thought about making the switch to a VOIP (Voice Over IP) telephone provider? What’s holding you back? Now I know it’s not a decision you’ll want to make on the spur of the moment. I made my switch to VoIP two years ago after a great deal of research. I was tired of my local phoneco’s insane prices, but didn’t want to jump from the POTS frying pan into the VoIP fire …
Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) might be plain and old, but I didn’t want to get burned.
My brain circled around the big bucks I dropped each month on my cable modem hookup. I was eager to get the most out of my monthly investment.
I took a close look at what my local phone company charges for all the goodies that the VoIP providers typically give away for free: caller ID, voice mail, call waiting, and call forwarding, just to start. Once I compared VoIP plans and added in the unlimited long distance, it was clear that I had to roll the dice.
After two years with VoIP, I’m happy as a clam. I’ve saved well over a thousand dollars by making the switch and the service has been nearly flawless.
The two main objections I keep hearing are, “What happens if the power goes out?” and “What about 911 calls?”
Honestly, I’m not that concerned with either.
We have no less than three cell phones in the house if the power goes out. The VoIP line runs into my home office, where it’s connected to a two-line phone … the second line is conventional. Call it a cop out, or just laziness, but I haven’t gotten around to switching the house line to VoIP, just yet.
I don’t have my VoIP box plugged into an uninterruptible power supply at the moment. Every time our power goes out (or when the VoIP box’s plug gets kicked out) AT&T does a 911 reset on the phone, just to be sure that the box hasn’t been relocated.
While I’m happy with the AT&T CallVantage service, I’m thinking about using a different VoIP provider for the home line, just for hoots.
Question for the Gnomiesphere: anyone running boxes from two different VoIP sources off the same router?