POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) has been the main stay of communication in our homes for many decades. And despite the upgrade from using live telephone operators (does anyone remember that?) to mechanical switchboards to the current digital switchboards and telephones, the principle had remained relatively the same. Your telephone basically ran a telephone line from their switches to your home.
The arrival of cellphones is, for many people, a viable alternative to maintaining a POTS at home. Most of the younger folks I assume are comfortable enough not having. I am not one of those. I still long for the security of having an actual phone tethered to a wall socket, that I will not leave somewhere in the Mall and get washed with my dirty clothes. What I did not want was the cost associated with this lines.
The internet and the development of Voip (Voice over Internet Protocol) telephony has made it possible for alternative to POTS. Voip, which allows the transmission and reception of voice over the internet has improved greatly since I first tried it out years ago. My first experience with Voip was not very good. The latency (time between the moment a voice packet is transmitted and the moment it reaches its destination ) and the echo was so bad I compared it to using CB radios with only one person talking while the other listened. My next attempt was to use the then popular AIM (AOL Instant messaging) and Skype. Unfortunately until the networks got fast enough, the delays and echos were still bad. In addition, the computer actually had to be on, and somehow, the party I was trying to call also had to be logged on.
Vonage was the first service I tried that showed me that it was possible to get rid of my POTS. I did find it to be a bit expensive at the time (I think I paid $24.99 for 500 mins) and, since it practically cost the same as my POTS, I decided against continuing the service. But I thought it to be a good start. I eventually progressed to Sunrocket and was happy with their service (despite the occasional bad audio quality) up until the time they filed for bankruptcy.
I then tried MagicJack. The earlier version of MagicJack required the use of a PC to make calls, and this could be an issue. So I decided to experiment. I left my PC on for 3 days to see if it could, in essence, replace my land line. But for some reason the MagicJack would always shutdown. I decided it too was not ready for prime time. I eventually switched to ITP and have been very satisfied with it. But I do continue to look for cheaper alternatives and I have now heard that MagicJack Plus does not require a computer to work, just plug it into your router. And you can now even port your old phone number, wow! I am planning on giving this new MagicJack a try as the prospect of paying only $19.95 / year vs ITP $15.95 / month is too good to pass on. If everything works well, then maybe I will go as far as actually port my current phone number.
A Voip service I have not tried is Ooma. The premise behind this is that you pay for the unit in full, then pay whatever taxes and fees a regular POTS would cost but then be able to make free local and long distant calls, for life! State fees as of Nov 2011, amount to about $3.50/month in the state of Maryland. The catch of course is that you pay upfront since the unit costs up to $200 for the base unit. A concern I have is with the voice quality and the companies staying power. Ooma works very much like Skype in that it depends on a peer-to-peer network to operate. So as more and more people use the service, there is a need for faster internet connection between hubs. What happens when there are just too many users? Would the voice quality degrade? As far as the stability of the company is concerned, would they reach a point where there unit sales aren't growing anymore because those who want to use the service already have their own units? It seems to me at that point that they would either close shop or start charging something, somewhere. Perhaps they already do. In any case, if you do the math. If Ooma closes down 10 months after you buy and start their service, you probably would have broken even, already. After 10 months it is all savings.
How about Google Voice? At the moment Google Voice isn't a phone service. I do use it manage calls rather than to make calls. There are ways to make free US calls through Google Voice but at the moment, I do not find it to be worth the hassle.
One question some people may be asking is whether there were any services that are given up when you switch from the POTS to Voip. In most cases, there are none. Caller ID, voice mail or call waiting are, for the most part, tossed in for free. I actually had to pay for these services when I was still using POTS. So, the whole point here is that even for those who do not want to give up their landlines, there is hope. Voip services are now just as clear as the traditional telephone and can be substantially cheaper if you are willing to experiment to find a service that works for you.
No comments:
Post a Comment