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Written by Viggie Bala December 19, 2005 I have not responded immediately to your call on reader's views partly because of the long winding link debates in LED - which I tend to skip more regularly these days, and partly because I am more into another exciting internet development that is completely ignored here. Readers of LED will surely have at least a brush with the VoIP technology. The companies that purchased VoIP servers or phone accounts now increasingly use IP phone calls than emails to their branches, group companies etc. The features and facilities of VoIP services are growing very fast every day. The IP-PBX servers that work like an office intercom (but sits on office LAN) now supports Instant Messaging, besides wireless IP phones have started appearing in the market. These communication devices depend entirely on the internet and have to be maintained via web browsers. Besides office based server solutions, now one can purchase call minutes for various countries online, and use an IP phone connected to broadband. I am interested to hear from fellow LEders on their experience in using these services. Email effectively replaced the snail (postal) mails at least for personal use. I can't remember when was the last time I handwrote a letter and sent thru post to my friends or relatives. The change is unnoticeable and smooth. We don't long for the goold old days in this area (of posting a letter and waiting for a week for it to reach another country). The IP phones seems capable to do the same to good old telephones, and in double quick time than it took email to replace postal mails. Regards, Viggie Bala Helping Websites to Work viggie.com Written by Marsha Kopan January 5, 2006 I know that I'm piping in here a bit late on the VoIP thread but I'd like to make some commentary about VoIP. First, if you have a security system in your home or business you will want to make sure that you contact your security contractor right away. Alarm systems work best on POTS because they are analog. Over VoIP there is a potential for signals not getting to their destination. Secondly, you will want to ask your VoIP provider about 911 service. I know that the FCC was all over their case a few months ago and were given a mandate to "fix it" but I don't recall the time frame. The other thought is that they are coming in at a low price now but once they've made their billions are they going to raise their rates or come up with other gimmicks? Marsha Kopan, IVAA CVA, CRESS, PL Executive Secretarial Services execsecsrv.com Delegate, don't stagnate. Written by Steven Rothberg January 9, 2006 I read Marsha Kopan's concern about possible VoIP price increases with interest because we've use Vonage for our home phone for a couple of years. Until they came along, the only choice that we had was Qwest. Let's just say that their reputation for terrible customer service was well earned. As soon as we had the opportunity to switch, we did. Vonage has been great. Mostly. We've had repeated problems with their voice mail system, such as the problem they had last week where their system caused our phones to indicate that we had messages waiting even though we didn't. But you can call and actually speak to a real person within seconds. You can email and actually get an intellible reply back within hours. And it is hard to beat unlimited local and long distance calling with all the voice mail, caller id, etc. bells and whistles for $25 per month. I do not share Marsha's concern about VoIP price increases simply because it is a very, very competitive market. Unlike traditional telcos with their state-mandated and archaic monopolies, VoIP companies actually compete for business. If you don't like one, it is very easy to switch to another. And now that number portability has become a reality, you no longer have to give up your phone number if you switch carriers. So might Vonage or any other other VoIP telcos try to raise their rates? Sure, but they'll quickly lose their customer base unless they provide much greater service than the others. Isn't true competition great? Steven Rothberg, President and Founder CollegeRecruiter.com job board The highest traffic career site used by students and recent graduates. Written by Dave Roberts January 9, 2006 You don't need to worry much about VOIP rates going up, since the VOIP companies don't have any way to lock you in. Once you have broadband, you can use any VOIP provider. So if your broadband provider wants to raise rates, then you can just call Vonage or Lingo or one of any number of others. Competition will keep prices low! Dave Roberts davedoesitall.com Written by Viggie Bala January 9, 2006 The VoIP services can serve the business needs better than home needs at the moment. In the US they are already trying to present it as a replacement to normal phone. But it needs to run a few more development laps to achieve that. "The other thought is that they are coming in at a low price now but once they've made their billions are they going to raise their rates or come up with other gimmicks?" - Marsha Kopan While the VoIP services are cheap, the providers are actually making money. You can see that a lot of smaller companies are in the field. They don't have to invest heavily to start a service. They also don't have big pockets to serve at a loss. The prices will remain this way and can only go down. Many predicted that in future voice calls will be free. Apart from the VoIP services in which one has to depend on a service provider, the multi-location, multi-office businesses can benefit from running their own server at their office. The open source Asterisk PBX software (www.asterisk.org) is already became industry-standard. Consider this, if you have offices at 3 cities you can have a single intercom setup for all your office. You install an Asterisk server (open source application that runs in Linux) at your head office and IP phones at all locations are configured to this server. Calls from one office to another is an intercom call. If you are visiting from one office to another, you can still carry your number and answer the calls at the same number. You can also make outgoing calls through normal analog phone service, just like ordinary PBX. The incoming calls can land on the Asterisk server. The server greets caller and provides a voice menu. From there the call can reach to ANY person at ANY of your office. And if the caller knows your intercom number (say, 203), they can straight away punch that no. The cost? Apart from the server & network running cost (offices are already networked so no special charges here) and broadband (which is already there for offices), the cost is nil. There are no subscription charges. Now if you have 20 offices in 12 countries the Asterisk usage procedure is still the same. From your office in USA you can talk to your company offices at UK, Poland, China or India on your office intercom. The cost savings on phone calls are really huge. Of course, you can't rid with your analog phones yet. But all your inter-office calls will not go through the phone company. All you need is an Asterisk Server and IP phones at your offices. The server can be entirely managed through web browser. Regards, Viggie Bala Helping Websites to Work Written by David Spahr January 10, 2006 "Vonage has been great. Mostly... But you can call and actually speak to a real person within seconds." - Steven Rothberg Vonage and other services such as inter-office intercom may be the next coming thing if you can get it. It is not available everywhere. I have broadband service but it is not available where I live. David Spahr Stereoviews.com antique-photography.com Written by Viggie Bala January 11, 2006 "... other services such as inter-office intercom may be the next coming thing if you can get it. It is not available everywhere. I have broadband service but it is not available where I live." - David Spahr The inter-office intercom is a service that will be run by YOU. All you need is a PC Server and IP phones. Softphones (mostly free downloads) will also do. Even though it may not help home users much, there is an Open Source project called Asterisk@Home [now called trixbox - http://www.trixbox.org ] that simplifies Asterisk installation with a single CD. With this CD, installing an Asterisk server is a breeze. It does most (if not all) of the installation tasks by itself. The ISO image can be downloaded from the site and burn into a CD. And regarding Vonage, you can subscribe through internet and use their phone service from anywhere in the world. Of course, in such case, it is not convenient to do away with the analog phone. The following location introduces the VoIP services in US with their prices and features. http://www.jiwire.com/voip-guide-voip-plans.htm Regards, Viggie Bala Comments (1)
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| For the longest time I am using tringotel VoIP service because they are so much cheaper than any other service, and the shipping charges are absolutely free and I guess tringotel have merged with Sunrocket. |
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