How To Choose Voip Service Without Losing Your Shirt
By Jason Stewart, Sat Dec 10th
Voip. Just mentioning the word to yourself either brings up images ofwalking in a new city where the grass is greener, or it bringsup fear of the unknown. Some will tread carefully around thesubject, waiting to hear others opinions about a specificservice and some may charge fearlessly into a service that theyknow little about. Which way is the right way to choose a VoIPservice? I say neither. Is there a safe way to choose a service? You bet there is,but it does take some work and careful research to make surethat you don't get stuck with something you cannot use or worseyet, be forced into a scenario in which your telephonecommunications is impaired.
There are 3 general steps to choosing Broadband Phone service.They are: 1.Qualify Yourself 2.Qualify a specific Provider, and3.Research the provider. 1.Qualify Yourself – Ask yourself “why do I want voip?” Is itbecause you want to save money? are you attracted to by allof the features that it offers? Maybe you're sick of your localtelephone company. Whatever the reason, make sure that thebenefits are better than what you're already getting now. Forinstance, you might want to save money on long distance with avoip provider but don't want to give up your old phone number.In this case you would have to ask yourself whether it would beacceptable to lose your old phone number to save a few extradollars. These days, most providers (but not all) will allow youto keep your old phone number. Do you have a secondary means ofcommunication such as a cell phone? When your internet connection goes down, so does your line.That means that if a large storm knocks out power to your house,then your internet connection will also most likely be down.Another thing to consider when qualifying yourself for voipservice is that 911 service is not as robust as a land lineservice would be. You may have to give the dispatcher your nameand address. The good news is that the larger providers areworking with the dispatchers to provide 911 service that is justas robust as 911 on a land line. Last but not least you must make sure that your your internetconnection is suitable for voip. Sorry 56k'ers but dialup justisn't gonna cut it for voip. If you do have a broadbandconnection, head on down to http://www.testyourvoip.com and do aquick test. 2.Qualify a Specific Provider Your provider meanseverything when it comes to reliability and sound quality. Youshould choose a provider that has the features that you need(call waiting, 3 way calling, extra lines, distinctive ring,etc.). One thing to definitely look into is the 911 servicethat's offered and don't be afraid to ask lots of questions tothe customer service department of the prospective provider.Number portability (if you need to keep your old number) issomething else to be looked into. The rates should becompetitive and don't forget to look at international rates ifyou do any international calling. The most important thing tolook for in a provider is a money back guarantee. If thereis no money back guarantee, then pass on that provider; justabout all companies have a guarantee. 3.Research the provider Just because everything looks OK from acustomer service angle, the service is cheap , and does what youneed it to does not necessarily make it a good service. Whatdoes make a service good is if they have happy customers. Thebest way to do this would be to search the better businessbureau for complaints against the company, search google withsomething like reviews, complaints,opinions, etc. A great place to get real world opinions on voipservice is at the forums at http://www.broadbandreports.com. About the author:Jason Stewart is a programmer, Unix Administrator, PBXAdministrator and webmaster of http://www.voip-university.com.For more articles like this and for time and money saving voiptips go to http://www.voip-university.com |
