Considerations before switching to VoIP

A few years ago we switched to VoIP, which means Voice over Internet Protocol and haven’t had a problem with it since we switched, but before you decide if it is the right move for you, you need to take a couple of things into consideration.

The first thing you need to think about is what type of Internet access do you currently have. If you have a dial up connection then you need to decide if you want the added cost of switching to a cable modem. If you already have a cable modem then you need to determine how good of a connection do you have. If the cable company you use has quite a few outages then it wouldn’t be feasible for you to get VoIP because if your Internet connection is out then so is your phone. If you have both a cable modem and a good connection then you need to think about your current telephone provider. Do you make long distance calls? Do you have a lot of extra services? Do you want to lower your phone bill?

If you said yes to any of the above questions then you might want to look into getting VoIP because it will lower your phone bill, provide extra services and offers unlimited long distance to the United States and Canada.

Then you have to decide on a provider. The most widely known provider is Vonage and they are a good company with good service but they are having legal problems and it is iffy if they will stay in business for long, so if you decide to go with them you need to keep in mind that they might not be in business for long. Another company is Packet8 and while I don’t know very much about them, they seem similar to Vonage but don’t seem to have the same legal problems. Another company you can look at is VoIP, they are a similar company to both Vonage and Packet8 and also don’t seem to be dealing with the legal problems that Vonage is and actually have some patents pending.

You don’t want to jump into a decision concerning VoIP, but you need to think through how it will affect you. Take your time, research the different companies and then make your decision.