Voice over IP or VoIP is quickly becoming the hottest thing since the popularity of Broadband Internet came about. Still, when you have a client calling you and wanting your thoughts on making the switch, you had better make sure that you have all of the information together.

You mean I need a phone line for DSL?
What kind of connection are your clients looking at using? More often than not, people tend to forget that they need to still have some sort of setup for their DSL service, which means having a DSL phone line. Most people with a basic understanding of how their Internet connection works know that they need to make sure their DSL remains in place, but you would be amazed at how easy it is for them to keep track of this. Then again, if they are using cable, this really doesn’t matter, now does it? But with the great rates being offered by DSL providers, chances are better than fair that this is the connection route they are already using.

Other VoIP related pain.
Then there is the concern with having access to true 911 services. Some of the VoIP providers do provide you with access to this type of service, but companies like Vonage require you to ‘manually enable’ this feature before it is actually activated. This could prove interesting for the non-tech savvy person having the heart attack that did not know they needed to enable this service.

And then there is my personal favorite, being forced to use ten digit dialing for local calls. Since VoIP does not work like your local POTS service, you might find that you’re stuck having to push those buttons a lot more than you initially anticipated! Oh sure, you say this is not a big deal. But after being forced to do this often enough, you will find it to be more tedious than you might like. Now, I have heard that Vonage does allow for local dialing in some areas without the ten digit dialing, but I would make darned sure you check on this before making any promises to your client about the marvels of VoIP service!

A light at the end of the tunnel.
On the flip side of things, going to a VoIP service has some great things going for it. Besides being cheaper in most cases, you can oftentimes bring your old number along with you. This is really helpful if you are running a home-based business. Also, if your service is out for some reason, most services out there provide some sort of ‘forwarding’ service that will automatically forward your calls to another line while the VoIP service is waiting to be restored.

Also, with companies like Comcast increasing their residential broadband speeds to higher numbers, this means the pain of bandwidth sacrifice is going to be greatly reduced. Yes, this could be the golden age for VoIP services, but is it really the golden age for the customer, as well? Speaking personally, I still have some real dependability concerns that I have yet to see being addressed to my satisfaction. If I could be guaranteed some sort of tunneling that would prioritize my voice data over that of traditional data being sent back and forth over the broadband network, then I might give this a second thought. My advice at this point: have your clients wait on this technology. You have to ask yourself if being the guy they glare at every time the VoIP service has an outage is really worth it. You may not really be the responsible party, but you were the person that recommended it to them! Think about it.