1. Is Voip Telephone Service Right For You Or Your Business?
VoIP (voyp) is simply "Voice over Internet Protocol'. The underlying concept is simple enough:
instead of your conversation taking place over wires owned by telephone companies, some or all of
that conversation flows through the Internet. Conceptually, that is all that you need to know, but of
course there is much more to it than just that.
You might be able to save money with VoIP. You definitely can get VoIP features that do not exist in
POTS (plain old telephone service).
However, there are advantages and disadvantages to VoIP; deciding whether it is the right choice for
you isn't always easy.
Acronyms and Jargon
Aside from knowing that VoIP means sending your telephone call over the Internet, there are a few
other terms you need to know.
One is "SIP", which stands for "Session Initiation Protocol", but you don't need to worry too much
about what that means except to know that a SIP device is one that can connect to a VoIP system.
There are, therefore, "SIP telephones" (also simply called 'IP Phones"). There's a picture of one near
the top of this page and you can easily find such things being sold at Amazon and other places.
There is also "SIP Trunking", which means bringing VoIP service to you at your home or office.
Technically, it's the connection of the VoIP network to the public switched telephone network. You
won't usually see that used except when advertising to businesses, but you should understand that
even if they don't use that scary term, that's what is happening.
The acronym you are more likely to see in the home market is "ATA", which stands for "Analog
Telephone Adaptor" and is simply a device that has a plug for a plain old telephone and a plug that
connects it to the Internet in your home or business. These can be stand-alone boxes that have one
or more ports for telephones. An ATA might be "locked" to the VoIP service that you contracted with
or it might be able to be used with any VoIP provider.
ATA's can also take the form of cards that are installed into a computer. That is done when the
computer runs PBX software, which is yet another acronym. This one is short for Private Branch
Exchange, but it's just software that gives more control over how the phone system works. It would let
you configure extensions, custom answering messages, menus ("Press 1 for Sally") and other
features.
Advantages of VoIP
Let's start with the advantages. Whether you run PBX software or not, there will be features that you
get with VoIP. What you get will vary, but some of the most common features include:
Managing phones and features from a computer
Whether through PBX software you run or some web page run by your VoIP provider, you'll be able to
manage available features from your computer and quite likely from your cell phone or tablet device.

2. No clumsy searching for the right button to push; all features will be managed by point and click.
Voice mail to text transcription
This translates voice mail to text and either emails it to you or provides a computer interface where
you can read it or play the actual recording.
The transcription is seldom perfect, but it's usually good enough for you to understand what the
person wanted and whether or not it is important or urgent enough that you need to listen to the
message or call them back.
For example, here is a recent transcription I received:
Hi, Good Morning Tony Steve, Just wanna phone with you regarding
the email to Looks like Robert anyway. Gimme a call.
What he actually said was:
Hi, Good Morning Tony, <it's> Steve, Just want to follow up with
you regarding the email to <pause> looks like Robert - anyway.
Give me a call.
That's close enough, obviously.
Computer access to voice mail
Even if you don't have transcription to text, you will almost certainly have computer access to the
voice mail recordings. That can be easier than remembering which button to hit to skip versus which
one deletes the message and has the additional advantage of showing you the phone number the
message came from. If you recognize the numbers, that can help you quickly select the messages
you are most interested in.
Call waiting
Of course you'll have basic call waiting. VoIP systems may offer additional options, however. In
addition to switching to the call, you might be able to quickly send them to voice mail or (even better)
send them to a menu which offers them the choice of going to voice mail or waiting for you. The VoIP
system may also be able to stack up multiple callers in that way.
Forwarding and multiple ring
You may be able to forward calls to other phones (your cell phone, your neighbor's phone) or cause
all those phones to ring at once and of course stop when one of the phones is answered. If you have
a feature like that, you may also be able to easily cause all the phones to ring again. Why would you
want that?
Imagine that you have the VoIP set to ring your home phone and your cell phone. A call comes in and
you take it at home but, part way through the conversation, you need to walk out to your back yard.
You switch it to your cell phone (typically without the other party even noticing) and continue your
conversation outside.
"Presence" and Find Me/Follow Me
You may have experienced "Find me" services if you've ever called someone and heard something

3. like "Please hold while I try to find.."
In this case, that person has configured a list of phones to try in sequence. The VoIP system might
first try their office phone. If that isn't answered after a configurable number of rings, it will try their cell
phone. Finally, it might try their home phone and, if that fails, go to voice mail.
"Presence" is the same idea but the VoIP system notices where you are. If you are using your home
computer, it will not bother to try the work phone number or the cell phone - it will go directly to where
it knows you are.
Line Unavailable Forward
This is used when the Internet is dead. If your VoIP connection in your home or office doesn't
respond, the VoIP provider will switch all calls to another number you have provided. That might be a
POTS (plain old telephone service) line or your cell phone.
Call Parking
Although typically a business feature, this can find use at home. If you are talking to someone and
they now need to speak to someone else, you can "park" the call, which is like putting them on hold
except that the other person in your office or home picks up the call by dialing a specific number (like
"777" or "521").
This would usually require PBX software and a multiple channel SIP trunk.
Call Transfer
This allows you transfer calls elsewhere - another phone, another extension or voicemail.
Use your computer as a phone
If you have a microphone and speakers (or headphones) on your computer, you can install software
that functions as a SIP phone. One popular and free example is X-Lite.
Telemarketer Blocking (pause blocking)
Have you ever answered your phone and heard a few seconds of "dead air" and then a human or a
computer connects and starts talking? That's what this feature is designed to handle: robot dialing
that only starts after it knows you have answered. The system senses that "dead air" just as you do
and either disconnects or sends them straight to voice mail.
Anonymous blocking and selective screening/blocking
This is is similar to the above, but allows you to add specific numbers and assign actions to them. In
advanced systems, you may be able to add time ranges to the actions, so that an annoying friend
calling at 11:00 PM will go to voice mail but a family member who might be calling because of an
emergency will not.
Computer maintained contact lists for Caller ID
This is just a convenience feature. Rather than seeing "Smith, Paul" or nothing at all, your caller ID
can use information that you have provided so that you'll see "Mom and Dad" instead.
Distinctive ring
If you have more than one phone number, this can use a different ring tone or you might assign
different ring tones to certain callers.
Call logs

4. Unlike your POTS lines, you'll probably have access to detailed call logs from your computer.
Auto attendant
Although more typically seen in business, if you have a family, it could be useful to set up telephone
extensions for each member and answer with menu choices that allow callers to direct their calls.
Area code selection (business)
A business that wants customers in another state to not have to use an out of state area code would
select their VoIP number(s) to have a different code then where they are actually located.
Faxing
A VoIP system might provide in-bound faxing that converts fax transmissions to PDF or other image
formats and stores or emails them.
Other services
This list is some of the more common services offered, but your VoIP service may offer others. As
services offered vary widely, be sure you are getting the features you need.
Cost
The cost of VoIP varies widely. It might be cheaper than POTS, it might be about the same and it
might be more.
I'll be talking more about that when I get to the disadvantages section, but it is important to
understand that you have choices.
For example, let's say that you are using Verizon FIOS for your home or business Internet
connection. Verizon offers a VoIP service, but you don't have to use them. You could sign up with
almost any VoIP service and - even though you are at home - that includes many business class
services. I have a business VoIP number in my home as well as a Verizon POTS line. As implied
there, signing up for VoIP doesn't mean you have to give up your regular phone either. You might
want to keep it while you test various services or you might want to keep it always - one doesn't
negate the other.
VoIP plans will have a monthly cost that covers in-bound calls and may or may not include a certain
number of allowed minutes for outgoing calls. This is where you need to compare plans carefully. My
present plan costs $13.00 per month (with taxes) and I pay 1.3 cents per minute for outgoing calls.
However, because I have a POTS phone that includes a calling plan, I don't actually use the VoIP line
for anything but incoming calls. My VoIP service includes 4 "channels", which means that although I
only have one VoIP number, I can have four telephone extensions and 4 simultaneous incoming or
outgoing calls - all for $13.00 a month.
Other plans might cost much more - what you need to be aware of is what features you are getting for
your money and what equipment you might need. For example, to actually have those extensions, I
need to run PBX software on my computer. That's not particularly expensive (and I am a reseller of
that software also), but without that, I'd probably need to choose a higher priced plan to get the
features I want.
Disadvantages of VoIP
The most obvious disadvantage is reliability. If the Internet is down, you have no phone (although

5. your provider might offer Line Unavailable Forward as described above). There's more to consider
also: if your VoIP provider has Internet problems at their office, you may not have telephone access
even if your Internet is up and running.
The Internet also can affect call quality. Choppy conversations, "under water" conversations, garbling
and dead air can happen because of a poor Internet connection. The infrastructure of your VoIP
provider matters also: if they don't have enough Internet bandwidth, enough computer power and
enough personnel to keep it all running smoothly, your service can suffer because of them even if you
have blazing speed and power at your end.
That's where price comes in again. As a simple exercise, go look for customer reviews of a dirt cheap
VoiP service like Magic Jack and compare them against similar reviews for bigger companies like
Vonage or Verizon. With VoIP, you often do get what you pay for!
That doesn't mean that the lower priced option is always bad, of course. The high priced spread may
include options or features that you don't need and the cheaper service may be perfectly fine as an
alternate or extra line.
Finally, you need to understand E911. Unlike a POTS line, where the telephone company knows the
exact physical location of the phone, a VoIP line is transportable. Moreover, if you run a PBX,
extensions could be literally anywhere. This means that someone dialing 911 is at some risk if they
cannot identify where they are. The VoIP providers have improved their technology, but this remains
an area where you need to fully understand the limitations - this could literally be a matter of life and
death!
Faxing is another possible snag. Some fax machines work fine with VoIP, but some may not. If you
need incoming or outgoing faxing and aren't doing it through a computer, you'll need to be sure this
will work or retain POTS lines for faxing.
Is VoIP for you?
If you've read everything above, you can see that VoIP might be a good choice. It might save you
money or give you features that you'd like to have. However, it's not as easy or as definite as some of
the VoIP advertising might indicate.
Plan carefully, investigate your options and test. Most home and business providers offer some free
test period; I'd strongly advise you to take advantage of those options before committing to anything
or doing anything drastic like canceling your POTS line.
Personally, I haven't made up my mind yet. My service gives me capabilities I enjoy, and the price is
certainly reasonable, but I am still keeping my POTS line too. Eventually I will likely fish or cut bait,
but right now I'm still in testing mode.
Your comments, experiences and questions are welcome.
As mentioned above, I sell and support inexpensive VoIP PBX software and hardware for small
business and even families who want to control their phones more easily. Please do contact me
thorough my profile if you would like more information about those systems.

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