Advantages and Disadvantages of VoIP

VoIP has many advantages, and VoIP technology continues to advance at a rapid pace as demand continues to rise. Although fewer, VoIP does have a couple of disadvantages. However, for most people, the pros outweigh the cons, and the disadvantages of VoIP are very minor, and very easily neutralized with a little common sense and planning. But we’ll get to that later. First, lets talk about the advantages

Advantages of VoIP
The biggest VoIP advantage on most peoples’ list is saving money. It costs much less for unlimited nationwide calling, as well as overseas long distance charges, than regular phone service does. This is because VoIP changes the way phone calls are made and routed. It utilizes a highspeed internet connection ( the “IP” part of the acronym, or Internet Protocol.) Because of this, phone calls can be placed and received from virtually any location on Earth where high speed internet service is available. In other words, this cuts the old fashioned Phone Company right out of the action. This means none of the toll, long distance, or taxes associated with what we normally think of as telephony apply to VoIP service.

Portability is another huge advantage. In order to translate voice signals into data that can be sent around the world via highspeed internet connection, the signal must be translated into data packets before being transmitted. This is handled via an ATA adapter (or Analog Telephone Adapter) which is the size of a pack of cards in most cases. In the case of softphone, software is used to convert and transmit calls directly from a laptop or PC. So, in order to take your inexpensive VoIP phone service with you, all you need is to pack your little adapter in a briefcase or make sure you have a laptop or PC with highspeed internet access at your destination.

Flexibility is another big VoIP advantage. What this really means is that you have a lot of options for how to use VoIP technology. Use it with softphone on a computer, or use your old fashioned touch tone phone. Use it to route your mobile phone calls and really save money. The many features offered with typical VoIP plans offer lots of options for how to make and receive phone calls. Call forwarding, conference calling, “follow me” and many others make it possible to use your phone in ways that were previously impossible or expensive.

VoIP Disadvantages
Because VoIP relies on signals transmitted digitally, it is obvious that one cannot use this technology during a power outage. Of course, traditional telephony can (theoretically) be used during loss of power – unless the source of the outage also takes out the phone lines.
In today’s world, it is difficult to name or find someone who does not have a cell phone, or at least access to a cell phone, in a time of emergency. Nor is it very often that a power outage lasts more than a day. Most likely, if an outage happens, we would fall back on our cel phones until power is restored. For most people, this really is not a big deal.

The other possible disadvantage of VoIP is inconsistant call quality – and this is actually becoming a thing of the past. Technology is improving rapidly, although sometimes VoIP calls are subject to degradation (loss of clarity.) Usually, this is only a problem for providers using lower quality infrastructure and routing networks. In other words, the industry leaders have the ability to provide crystal clear, digital quality audio on phone calls, which is actually better in quality than traditional phone service. This problem is easily solved or avoided by simply choosing one of the more reputable VoIP companies when choosing a service provider.

The subject of emergency calls (911) used to be on the list of disadvantages of voip. That is because the means by which voip calls were routed to emergency services (police, fire, etc.) were not standardized or required by law. However, that has changed and is continuing to improve. There are federal mandates imposed on voip providers to ensure e911 services (the voip version of 911) are provided to all customers using voip phone service. In addition, recent legislation has imposed improvements to the delivery of e911, to make it comparable in quality to traditional 911 services. In other words, the issue of emergency services is frankly, well no longer an issue (except in the event of power loss, which we covered above.)

Bottom Line
So, to wrap up, the advantages do outweigh the disadvantages, for most people. VoIP truly has reached “ready for prime time” status, and it will only continue to improve with the advancement of technology. So give it a whirl, and save yourself some money, and enjoy all those free features you get with VoIP!

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