Is It Time To Get VOIP?

I can hear some of you now asking the question...what is VOIP?

Well, lets start at the beginning. VOIP stands for "Voice Over Internet Protocal." Still confused? In plain English, this means using your Internet connection to make phone calls.

VOIP has been around for years. In the early days, one plugged in a set headphones with a microphone into one's computer, and with the proper software, could talk to someone else on the other end who was running the same software on his or her computer.

Today, VOIP works just like a regular telephone. You use a telephone to call almost anyone else in the world who has a telephone. But, instead of using regular telephone lines, your call is routed over the Internet. It eventually comes out at the other end routed over standard phone lines to the person to whom you wish to speak (unless the other party also has VOIP, in which case it never leaves the Internet).

To have VOIP, you must have a high speed, permanent Internet connection like our Grant County ZIPP fiber optics, DSL, or cable Internet connection.

No doubt, you have seen ads on TV for Vonage, one of the best known VOIP companies, although they never use the term VOIP. There are several other companies out there offering VOIP, including traditional telephone companies like AT&T and Verizon.

Susan and I have had VOIP for over two years now, and it works just great. We have called all over the US, Canada, and Western Europe...and people have called us. When Eric was in Quwait, he would call us via satellite phone and we had a great connection.

We are using a company called Packet 8. We chose them because they were the only company at that time that could give us a local Grant County phone number. As a bonus, it turned out they were also less expensive than most companies.

For a flat fee of $19.95 per month, we can make unlimited calls anywhere in the United States and Canada. We can also call oversees at very inexpensive rates. Compare this to the $35 a month we were paying to Qwest...and that was before we made any phone calls. Long distance was extra.

Packet 8 service has been so good that we dropped our Qwest phone permanently, although we kept our cell phones for obvious reasons.

The two biggest drawbacks to VOIP is that you must dial 1+the area code for every phone call (even to your next door neighbor) and...911 service is not included in the price. For Packet 8, it costs $5 a month additional to have 911 access.

As far as the area code dialing goes, it has become easy to adjust to, especially with auto dialing now built into almost every telephone on the market today.

If you would like to learn more about VOIP, I invite you to check out this site that compares the different VOIP companies, then check out each of their websites. You might find yourself saving a little money.