VoIP to become Reality?

It’s going to happen!
I ordered Vonage yesterday. With taxes, it will come in @ a hair over $19 a month. That’s a $31 savings every month. Or put another way, that’s two Round Table Pizzas a month. Supposed to be here shortly!



Maybe not!
There was an issue with trying to transfer our number over. Since Vonage relies on an internet connection and my internet is through my phone service… Well that poses a problem. I have to get the phone company to separate the two first. I envision problems trying to get this to happen properly.

Silver lining, though. I was investigating Skype as well, which is ALSO a VoIP service, but instead of using special hardware to plug your existing phone into your router & thus your internet connection, it basically just uses your computer as the phone. The the downside is that you don’t have a handset, but the upside is that you have a pretty cool speakerphone!

The other upside is that service – after I get ahold of a phone # for it – will be a whopping $5.50 a month. $5.50 a month! You know what that is? That’s another Round Table Pizza, baby, on top of the other two! There are catches, though, beyond the handset issue (which is a non-issue as we can get a headset for the ‘puter and be just the same about). For one, they don’t bill it as a home phone service replacement, because it’s not hooked up with 911 service. This is not really an issue for us, as we have emergency cell phones that will do 911 anyhow. The other issue, and probably the main one for me, is that the computers must be on at all times. Since they’re essentially the phone now, that means that if the computers are off, as are the phones. Not sure how I feel about that quite yet. There is one other issue that equally affects both; since they run off an internet connection – which requires a modem on a power source – if either a) the power goes out, or b) the internet goes wonky, we don’t have home phone. But hey, we got those emergency cell phones, right?

At this point, we’re considering it. Going to try and talk out the details, make a decision. We’ll either be letting the Vonage order go through and trying hassle with at&t to split up the internet service, or we’ll be placing a stop-order with Vonage due to difficulties with the phone company, and then jumping to skype.