Independent VoIP Companies Fade as Cable Takes Over > Not surprising

reply to fiberguy

Re: what about 911 service having phone when the power goes out.

MagicJack, sorry to say, is a toy, not phone. Phone is something that is a utility and has a level of protection over seeing it. Have you read the MagicJack terms of service? You basically don't own a thing at all.. no guarantees either.. look close, you don't even have rights to the phone number. And, if anything happens, who is out to protect you?

At least with Telco, there are regulators, with cable, there are franchises and other bodies watching out for your service,with Vonage and other indie voips, even the ones that went under, there was a presence, warnings, and you were able to get out.

MagicJack could fold tomorrow and who's going to care?

As much as I was debating (I forget his screen name, he argues MJ all the time and has his own VOIP, TINY, voip service in CA) I agree with him.. the model is un-sustainable. MJ won't be around long.

What's ok about it simple.. enjoy it while you can. DO we know the model? No.. no one does. Will you save some money for a while? ABSOLUTELY! So it's a good thing to have.. but.. a real phone service? No... it's not.
Not only do you need the ISP.. you have to have a computer running 24/7 and hope IT too doesn't crash.

So come on... you can't pass off Magic Jack as real phone service. I have Comcast, Qwest, and even two vonage lines. I love Vonage.. it works great.. has for a few years... do I put full faith and trust in it? No.. has it been good for me? Sure. Have I worried about them? yes.. do I call doom and gloom on them? no.. Vonage is too big and strong right now. Is it real phone service? Not really... it's not backed by anything, has no transport of its own, is dependent on another service to operate - BUT AT LEAST it has a stand alone piece of hardware that operates it. MagicJack has WAY too many things in its way to go wrong, and we ALL know how stable and reliable windows is, right? (And people, yes, XP has been good, and I know there are people, such as much self, that have had good luck with windows, so spare me the "but my system is stable" BS.. Windows has issues and I'd never trust my home, or family's safety to it and MJ)