damonlab
Premium
join:2001-05-02
Detroit, MI
clubs: 
| No I wouldn't buy it.
"VOIP should find itself a niche if the quality is high and the costs are low. Once those two problems are met, its biggest stumbling point will be that you can't dial 911"
I would not want a phone that I could not dial 911 with. I would be inclined to use VOIP only if it was free or dirt cheap (remember when they had the free buddyphone and dialpad type programs?). I still would not give up my land line despite the fact I despise telephone companies so much. |
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Mike
Premium,Mod
join:2000-09-17
Pittsburgh, PA
clubs: | If it's a local phone service, the FCC requires that there be an active '911'. |
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dbarc
join:2000-01-22
Fort Wayne, IN
| reply to damonlab
said by damonlab:
I would not want a phone that I could not dial 911 with. I would be inclined to use VOIP only if it was free or dirt cheap (remember when they had the free buddyphone and dialpad type programs?). I still would not give up my land line despite the fact I despise telephone companies so much.
I'd take it (and will look into that company mentioned). It should be marketed like the earlier cable services and how ISDN is still marketed by the RBOC's as for use as a second but not primary line. The VoIP services don't have 911, and neither they nor the ISDN services generally have service during power failures. Even that is almost a moot point with RBOC's deploying fiber to remotes in apartment buildings etc, as with a long power failure, the batteries will eventually give out. With just about everyone having cell service these days, I really don't see a problem with it being your primary service as you have both 911 service and service if no power. (My primary service happens to be ISDN, though it is connected through a UPS) |
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martissimo
join:2001-12-01
Las Vegas, NV
clubs:
| which begs the question, why pay for it...
Don't get me wrong if it was a full fledged alternative to traditional phone services the 20$ a month for 500 minutes or 40$ for unlimited might fly. If i have to maintain another standard phone line or cell phone in unison with the VoIP it is no longer saving me any money, its costing me more probably.
VoIP just doesn't give me the reliability i would need to switch to it, my cable modem has far from perfect uptime and it wont work when the power is out. I mean how frustrating would it be if you lose cable connection and because you use VoIP as your primary service you cant call to report it.
the only people i could see this as usefull too are people who run-up enormous phone bills really (though that is certainly not a market to casually dismiss), neat stuff... but not quite ready for the masses |
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deejaycez
join:2002-04-12
Bronxville, NY
|  Even if you could...
Call anywhere, anytime, anyone Nationwide for a flat fee? With all of the features of your regular phone and then some as part of that flat fee?
I definitely would, check out Vonage - »www.vonage.com and read this article on Time about them:
»www.time.com/time/magazine/artic···,00.html |
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Jacob
join:2000-11-28
Los Gatos, CA | It sure is...
It sure is "taking off!" I have an ip phone at my house, given to me by one of my employers. |
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72276539
Premium
join:2001-01-19
Atlanta, GA
| Not yet, not in the next 5 years
Title says it all, VOIP is not ready for the masses. It is being pushed as the new sexy technology companies are trying to make work no matter what. Where i work we do loads of VOIP and we have kicked several providers to the curb because they just suck, the downtime on our VOIP products compared to the circuit switched network is vastly more. I have circuit switched DS3's that haven't seen downtime in the 2 1/2 years I have been working here. I think Global uses VOIP and it sounds like ass, reason I think this is that you can hear the background noise go away then when someone starts talking again it returns. It does not sound good at all. I'll keep my POTS line thank you.
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»www.geocities.com/anubisracing |
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highjinx
join:2000-10-12
Alturas, CA
|  reply to deejaycez
A little guess work for the future
quote:
If it's a local phone service, the FCC requires that there be an active '911'.
NO problem. ADSL as a product lends itself nicely to an IP Telephony consumer solution that is 911 capable. Anything IP enabled (phone, computer, PS2 or XBox, etc.) will be networked to a gateway. This router/gateway box will know whenever someone dials any number but 911, the call will route via IP to either the PSTN or another IP enabled phone set. If someone picks up a phone and dials 911 in the home, the gateway’s call manager will route 911 calls over the POTS line. Problem taken care of.
Good or bad, the RBOX are chopping at the bit to deploy VoIP/IP Telephony (some of you know the difference) to the consumer market. They know that this is where their next vertical market will come (sort of like caller ID, but with better margins) and are investing today to roll this out soon. This is one of the main reasons why they're so desperate to get into LD (they want to carry the traffic end to end) and take out the middle man....err can you say Tauzin Dingell!!!
Now for some fun at guessing what kind of consumer packages will be out there.
Starter Package
So lets say for $109.95 monthly you get one line with up to 128k/1.5M ADSL service.
2 Virtual lines (changeable in real-time via RBOX website), 2 Integrated email and voicemail boxes (voicemail in your Outlook inbox and vise versa), 2 hour monthly gaming subscription, 2 free VoD, 100Mb Home page, Caller ID, call return, call forwarding, call screen, speed calling, blah, blah, etc.
All IP to PSTN calls are 5 cents / minute (with 250 free LD minutes /month)
All IP to IP calls are 5 cents /minute (250 free minutes /month)
Premium Package
So lets say for $229.95 monthly you get one line with 384k/1.5-6M ADSL service.
6 Virtual lines (changeable in real-time via RBOX website), 6 Integrated email, voice, & video mail Boxes, video chat (with other RBOX sub’s), unlimited gaming subscription, 8 free VoD movies, conference calling (up to six IP or 3 PSTN), 200 Mb Home page, caller ID, call return, call forwarding, call screen, speed calling, blah, blah, etc.
All IP to PSTN calls are 5 cents /minute (500 free LD minutes /month)
All IP to IP calls are 3 cents /minute (500 free minutes /month)
Can you blame me for trying to have a little fun???
HJ
[text was edited by author 2002-04-16 18:55:51] |
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ShadowMastr
Master Of All Shadows
join:2001-09-01
Fort Pierce, FL
 ·AT&T Southeast
 ·Comcast
·CenturyLink
| I DO have VoIP
We have been using VoIP with Mpower Communications for almost a year at the office. We have a 6 line system, the usual fax and alarm lines (which are on POTS), and the 'free' 1.5 SDSL data/Internet connection. Voice quality has been great, only had a couple people tell us the volume of our voice is a little low. We did experience 2 outages to the phone service, one on a Saturday when office wasnt open, and once on a week day, both times back up in about an hour. It cut our phone bill by about 40%, the internet speed has been great, good enough for the handful of remote users to be logged in to our Win2k server at the same time with no problems. It's not quite good enough to run a Game server like Unreal Tournament, Tribes2, etc....but.....not supposed to at the office anyway....
Now if they can just manage to stay in business like they say they are going to, then we're happy campers.... |
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72276539
Premium
join:2001-01-19
Atlanta, GA
| reply to highjinx
Re: A little guess work for the future
said by highjinx:
This is one of the main reasons why they're so desperate to get into LD (they want to carry the traffic end to end) and take out the middle man
If your building a solid VOIP network you need that very thing, our best expierances with VOIP carriers have been the ones who had the most control over their networks. It is hard to fire someone in another company who is screwing things up repeatedly, however if someone in your company is screwing things up you can send them packing rather easily. It's easier to control latency on your equipment.
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»www.geocities.com/anubisracing |
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hullboy
join:2000-12-21
San Jose, CA
| Traditional phone line still required...
So the requirements for this service (Vonage) are a high speed data connection with at least 90k upload speed. If you're a DSL user, you will have to have a standard phone line anyway. I called the Vonage customer center and asked them a few questions. They're currently positioning this new service as a second line service because of the need for the HSD connection and the unavailability of 911 service.
You know, I think I would still like to try it. the success of a service like this will change the voice telco market by offering an alternative - yet still competitive - voice service that will help to level the playing field and inspire competition. In the end, the consumer wins! |
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highjinx
join:2000-10-12
Alturas, CA | reply to 72276539
Re: A little guess work for the future
quote:
It's easier to control latency on your equipment.
...Don't forget it's cheaper too!!!
HJ |
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Harddrive
Premium
join:2000-09-20
Norwich, CT
| reply to damonlab
Re: No I wouldn't buy it.
I put VoIP systems in at a enterprise level. 911 isn't a problem for the business because they have the flexability to put CO Trucks in for a route pattern for 911 calls. The voice systems sends the 911 to a trunk which is ID'd at the emergency call center for its location. The hardest part of the VoIP for home users will be the 911 feature. The only way I think they can do it is if they have static ip's for all the phones and link the ip to each person's phone. So if someone dials 911, a data base pulls up the ip address then looks to see who has it then routes the call to the emergency call center. Otherwise you'll have the police and fire show up at your local CO.
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Fortunately I keep my feathers numbered, for just such an emergency.-Foghorn Leghorn |
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macyh
Ex-Isp
Premium,MVM
join:2001-04-24
Medina, OH
·Armstrong Zoom In..
| VoIP works in large & mid biz now, will scale down
VoIP has quietly come of age this year. It works. We have it. We use it. And we're preparing to move all our phone traffic to it shortly. But it's not just about early adoptors now.
A surprising number of large and mid size end users have it in place today. However, it's been a stealth introduction rather than the big bang the computer technology magazines want to talk about it.
Large businesses have been quietly using VoIP on their networks for a couple of years. They just connnect up the router POTS or E&M ports to the PBX's now in place. Some PBX's now have VoIP telephony cards that replace an existing outside truck card. Cisco, Avaya, Nortel, Telred, Intertel and others have complete VoIP systems that entirely replace PBX's.
Vonage has the right model for small customers, use it as an adjunct service, let the customer pick their equipment. There's even better equipment on the market now to use with it (routers with POTS interfaces built in). A new generation of low cost IP phones will arrive shortly that will add to the fun. Adoption will be slow, steady and there will be small and large players.
Mpower has it right for mid size businesses, packaged and working end to end, connected to your existing system using POTS interfaces. IP telephone systems are now coming onto the market that will leverage the service.
There are inexpensive low end routers with VoIP for ADSL users coming to the mass market. Look for Linksys, Zyxel or someone similar to introduce a VoIP unit soon.
The really, really neat part about all this is that the hardware will interoperate between vendors, telco's and carrier's very early on. The adoption of standards has been one of the biggest developments in the past year, more than anything, this is what will make VoIP really useful to most end users. Watch and see.
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Macy Hallock APK Net, Inc. Cleveland, Ohio |
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jp245
join:2002-02-15
Brenham, TX | The cisco AVVID is awsome, PBX's will be a thing of the past in a few years. Why use the pstn if your company already has an IP infrustructure in place? |
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richardak
join:2001-07-08
Seguin, TX
| ?catchy title?
does anyone else but me see just how stupid VOIP really is?
Let's see, first there is POTS, then you get the internet over that POTS line, then you make a call using the internet over that POTS line.
So you are now using the POTS line for what it was originally intended, but with A LOT of overhead.
I would never, ever, ever use my Internet connection to make a phone call. That is what the phone is for.
The analogy above really only applies to dial-up and DSL users. I have a Cable Modem, but I would still never use it for phone service. |
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2farfromCO7
join:2000-10-14
Farmington, MI
| The best deal might be the plug in the modem deal
The best deal might be the deal that Comcast and WideOpenWest deal where you plug the phone right in the modem. However, that would limit you to one phone. As the cordless phones with multiple handsets become more affordable, this will be a great deal. Of course, it will only be available in cities with great cable deals i.e. not Farmington, Farmington Hills, Novi, Livonia, and Redford. |
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kapil
The Kapil
join:2000-04-26
Chicago, IL
| I have it and I love it :-)
I have Voice over IP. I am 19,000 feet from my CO. My work as a systems engineer requires that I be able to connect to work remotely....and IDSL is tooooo slow for remote control apps like PC Anywhere or DameWare. Mpower just started offering this service....For $349 a month...I get a full T1 and 4 phone lines with all sorts of custom features like caller ID, Voice Mail etc.
I absolutely love the service.
You CAN dial 911....I don't know why you wouldn't be able to, since the phone lines work exactly like analog POTS....the only difference being that your voice is packetized to the switch.
Technically, Mpower is supposed to give you 384K for data plus 32K X 4 for the phone lines. But Mpower has no way of throttling the T....so you essentially get the FULL T. When you use the phone, the bandwidth dynamically changes to Full T - 32K for each voice channel being used.
No bandwidth or other restrictions, since it is a business grade product.
The voice part of the service includes unlimited usage and calls within the Chicago LATA. (or any of the other Mpower markets you happen to be in)
If this service interests you, please let me know and help me earn a couple of bucks for my *expensive* college tuition
I went ahead and paid an extra 15 bucks for 3 additional IP Addresses so I can host my own servers, email, DNS etc.
The T1 line is not channelized like a traditional T...its the whole pipe going to the Mpower DSLAM retrofitted with T1 Cards instead of SDSL cards.....the DSL sends the voice traffic to the voice gateway and then on to the DMS500 and it sends the data traffic to the internet gateway.
The best part was...I didn't have to pay for CPE...NO CSU/DSU...they gave me this voice/data/gateway/router thing made by Adtran.
My initial thought was to have the Adtran in bridge mode so I can use my netopia router for port mapping etc.....but then I found out that the ADTRAN supports all advanced features found on DSL routers
It's great...I LOVE IT I LOVE IT I LOVE IT 
-K
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»www.kapilville.com
::: Do, or do not, there is no try::: |
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kaila
join:2000-10-11
Lincolnshire, IL
clubs: | Doesn't this describe Sprint ION???
Now defunct of course, but wasn't ION a package w/ upper limit ADSL and 2 to 4 VoIP lines (package dependent) including local and LD service??? |
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72276539
Premium
join:2001-01-19
Atlanta, GA
| reply to kapil
Re: I have it and I love it :-)
Now that's nice and crap but not many of us here can afford 350 bucks a month for a service like that. The product you have is much different then what many are trying to do which is to replace bell. What you have is a Data CLEC, big difference.
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»www.geocities.com/anubisracing |
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