Going the Distance: Why you Should Get VoIP

If you’ve been surfing and emailing recently, you may have encountered advertisements and mail touting the advantages of using VoIP or Voice over Internet Protocol. This is a method by which you can use the Internet as your phone line, and use your broadband connections to talk while you surf, chat while you email, and spend only a few cents even if you’re calling someone abroad.

There are currently two types of VoIP services available. Hardware-based VoIP services require a converter box to connect your phone to your broadband connection. Software-based VoIP services, on the other hand, operate through your computer, appropriate software, and a broadband connection. In either case, you can make phone calls and be charged much, much less than if you were using an ordinary phone line.

If VoIP is so cheap, why hasn’t it caught on? The problem with VoIP is that it often offers low voice quality, and phone calls usually sound scratchy and screechy, and are often interrupted by static. Another problem is that some servers do not offer VoIP-to-ordinary-phone-line packages, so that VoIP users are often limited to calling other VoIP users.

VoIP services, moreover, do not work in the event of a power outage, or without a broadband connection. This limits its versatility especially for potential clients in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, where Internet connections are largely dial-up systems that only a few people can afford.

With more and more advances in VoIP technology, however, everyone may soon be able to avail of and enjoy talking over the phone while surfing and saving cash. VoIP, moreover, has its own advantages, and these may help you in choosing it for your home or office.

What makes VoIP great?

• If you are using hardware-based VoIP services, you can also call anyone you need and want, even if they are not using VoIP.

• Using software-based VoIP services is much cheaper than getting a hardware-based service, since you need no converter box. Call charges are usually waived if you call other VoIP users.

• If you travel a lot, VoIP will work to your advantage, as it is location independent. That is, you need to simply take your VoIP phone adapter along, plug it into your new broadband connection, then continue using the VoIP service without changing living information. As long as you have access to broadband Internet, you can use your VoIP hardware.

• Since VoIP is location independent, then you can have a phone number with the area code of one state, while living in another. These virtual phone numbers can allow you to bypass taxes or charges you might incur while living in another state, and it may also allow you to keep your old phone number if you move house. This way, you won’t have to inform all your friends and relatives that you’ve changed numbers, and you’ll avoid the hassle of having to call the phone company to change all your living information.

• At present, VoIP has not been stamped with taxes or fees, so you can still save some money while making phone calls. Long distance calls are especially cheap for VoIP, so ask a VoIP service provider how much less it charges for such calls.

• Some VoIP services now offer page listings and emergency numbers, which are useful in emergencies, such as when you can’t get hold of a directory, or if you are traveling and don’t carry written directories with you.

• Wi-Fi handsets will soon be on the market, and you can shift to VoIP using your mobile phone! This will allow you even more versatility when you travel.

VoIP is really here to stay, and all it will take is some know-how on what makes it tick. If you think VoIP is for you, talk to your local service provider, and you may be making calls and saving money in no time at all!