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90 Comments
- tech10171968, on 10/10/2007, -3/+47Meh. I'm not going to mark this as inaccurate as the article makes some valid points. However, a more accurate title would have been, "Six reasons why your business should avoid VoIP". As it stands now the title makes it sound as if _everyone_ should not use it, and is therefore a bit misleading.
- Conwaysb0718, on 10/10/2007, -1/+37Um, did anyone else notice this article is from Nov. 2005? Since then many of these issues have been resolved. A lot of you who posted above are not referencing "business class" VoIP. While it is true that if your dedicated circuit goes down your phone system will be down, many providers offer at least a 4 9's (99.99% uptime) solution and you can always get a DSL circuit for redundancy. And if you cant get reliable T-1 or above service in your area, VoIP is obviously not for you. Also, as long as you are dedicating enough Kbps per call you wont have any issues with voice quality and clarity. The E-911 issue has been mandatorily resolved. If you are a business who is spending a significant amount of money in long distance or need to upgrade your existing PBX, a move to VoIP might be a great decision if you compare total cost of ownership. If you are considering a VoIP solution for your business, it is always a good idea to keep a landline anyway for your fax machine/security alarm/etc. Did I mention this article is from 2005?
- allaboutdatiki, on 10/10/2007, -2/+24Real VoIP rocks for small business. Skype won't cut it for mission-critical stuff.
There are solid providers out there and there are some real fly-by-night operations.
Compare them closely and above all, make sure that they're for real.
http://www.geekbooks.com/VOIP-comparison.htm - mtcow, on 10/10/2007, -5/+14I would actually say this entire article is pretty inaccurate. I'm current working as a software engineer making VoIP enabled cable modems, and these 6 reasons are just plain retarded.
-Voice quality and reliability are mission critical.
There have been no stats indicating poor service from VoIP at all.
-Power or high-speed Internet connections are unreliable.
Unavailability != suckage.
-E-911: VoIP enabled cable modems support emergency calls even when the power goes out. There is a battery pack.
-High-speed Internet isn't available: VoIP doesn't work over dial-up.
How is this a reason? If it is unavailable, it doesn't mean it sucks.
-High-speed Internet usage near capacity.
VoIP bandwidth is NOT shared with regular internet usage. In fact, there is a quality of service value that goes along with each call made that you can look up if you ask your service provider later.
-Capital costs: A building may not be wired for high-speed Internet but may already have a telephone connection.
Again, just because if may be unavailable, it doesn't mean it sucks.
So really, 3 of these "reasons" bargain on the assumption that VoIP may not be available. For the other 3 reasons, the author's obviously not used VoIP before. - daball99, on 10/10/2007, -1/+9Two year old article. In the tech world that's like twenty. News should be New.
- kiranlightpaw, on 10/10/2007, -1/+5We run a combination IP and traditional system at my office (10-channel PRI + 5 SIP trunks incoming, and a bunch of SIP handsets and softphones). We just recently transitioned from a proprietary 3Com system to Asterisk; everybody loves it. The devs love being able to have softphones, the business types adore getting voicemail in e-mail and conferencing, and I like it because it's easy to administer.
However, we still have a single POTS line run into the building that our alarm is on. Theoretically it could serve as a backup phone line; but this hasn't been necessary since we moved. - Nobiting, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4Quality and service is just like any other phone. There is a backup battery for phone in case of emergencies.
- coachace, on 10/10/2007, -0/+42005!?!? buried.
- OBKenobi, on 10/10/2007, -2/+5I agree, that's a very misleading title. I use Earthlink/Time-Warner VoIP at home and it has worked nearly flawlessly. The only problems have been with occasional cell phone and international calls that get too much lag because of the routing.
Die, AT&T! - Ryfael, on 10/10/2007, -3/+6No offense, I wouldn't use Skype for business calls. I'd use something with support and monthly payments.
- Woknblues, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3with the exception of the past 2 days, I have not had a single problem with skype, and I am a user living in the Philippines, land of the 256K Cable connection. It came back today and everything is fine. I have had more intermittent service issues with regular POTS lines than Skype. Oh, submitted 2 years ago. I see.
- delgotit99, on 10/10/2007, -2/+5One reason to get VoIP. Unlimited phone calls for $15 a year! I won't plug the company but I am sure you can figure it out.
- krinthekuz, on 09/16/2008, -1/+4i'm not even in the mood to address all the faulty arguments. besides, i want tome sources for these measurable statistics.
- jollyholly, on 10/10/2007, -6/+9When you have to call a customer back three times because Skype keeps disconnecting, it's time to try something else..
- spectre_25gt, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Who in their right mind would digg this down? He's completely right. Skype is not suitable to be a complete replacement for land lines.
- mikes1, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2I _am_ burying it as inaccurate. The idiot isn't talking about VoIP in general, but about IP carrier access. Businesses can use VoIP within thier organization while maintaining traditional TDM (T-1, PRI, etc.) trunks.
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Can you hear me now?
Since many business people do business on their mobile phones... and mobile phones disconnect more often than skype.... I don't see your reasoning??? - ClOlD, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2-Voice quality and reliability are mission critical
Cell phones have worse compression schemes than VOIP. At least with a PC you have sheer processing power on your side to squeeze as much as possible into that channel.
-Power or high-speed Internet connections are unreliable
How is one copper cable coming to my house more or less reliable than another copper of fiber-optic cable?
-The enterprise needs features VoIP doesn't provide
(ie, no E911) Using ANI to provide the caller's number to police and using the phone subscriber databases to look up that address is a RECENT addition to land lines. VOIP is new and comparing it feature-for-feature against a network in development for decades is unfair.
-High-speed Internet isn't available
No, we can't all get broadband, but that ISN'T a reason to AVOID VOIP. That's saying you should avoid X because you can't get X. They're mutually exclusive.
-Capital costs
This argues that you have to install broadband while you already have a telephone line. While this isn't true for everyone (last house I moved to had fiber installed but no phone line) it's also contrary to the article's headline, just like the last complaint: not being able to get VOIP isn't coexistant with having to AVOID switching to VOIP. - sporkey, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2We are currenlty deploying Asterisk on an enterprise scale as well. Our developers have created a hosted asterisk environment, great stuff!
- cactus476, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3I install VoIP phones for a major university. From my experience, it all depends on the hardware you use. One type of phone we use is PoE and the switches are on 5 hour UPSs while other phones are powered by the outlet, need to be manually reset every time the power goes out and can only be configured via a computer.
- ispshadow, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2For the people reading this that do not have VOIP, do not believe everything you're reading in the linked article. My Vonage account has been on since last October and we have had NO problems with our phone unless the power goes out. If I put my cable modem, router, and vonage on an UPS and my ISP still has power, I'm still talking.....
ZERO problems. Yes, I set up QOS on my router for Vonage but that's just because I wanted it that way. It didn't have QOS on the first month and we had a slight echo/delay on one phone call. The network was already saturated with a bunch of torrents(linux, shut up) and the wife was surfing while I was talking so I suppose it was probably understandable.
Vonage costs us $30.00 a month after taxes/fees and that includes an enormous amount of extra features. We have free long distance in North America and most of Europe. Why in the hell would I want POTS (Plain old telephone service)? - fusama, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2"-Power or high-speed Internet connections are unreliable.
Unavailability != suckage."
But unreliability absolutely == suckage. - williamdyer, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2He is right. Mobile voice quality blows. Wideband voice codecs for VoIP FTW.
- cl0n3x, on 10/10/2007, -0/+27) If you use comcast you're screwed
- rajulkabir, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2When you think Skype is the state of the art in VoIP, it's time to do some more reading.
- HairyPoter, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2this article is crap. It is old and untrue, even for the date it was written. My home phone is VOIP since 2004 and the voice quality is perfect with very low number of issues in these years. I use a Zoom x5v voip router and my voip provider is in the Uk (one of the best providers I know). The voice quality is perfect and their voicemail deliver the messages thru wav files to your email. Their prices are 50 times lower than any telecom I know and despite the country you live you can choose a telephone number from any country. They offer automatic call centers, voip pabx and a hundred of other services and the Zoom x5v router allows me to use my regular cordless phone, so, I do not have to have my computer on to receive or make calls. VOIP rules and my advice to everyone is try one of these devices for yourself. For maximum compatibility choose one the works with an open source protocol as SIP, so you will be not bound to any company, as you will if you choose skype for example (skype sucks).
- opusmarta, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2That's because "the internet" and the fixed phone network is much much more than just a cable.
Main difference is that the "internet network" has no "intelligence" or QoS, while the phone network has "intelligence" and QoS. - fusama, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2"How is one copper cable coming to my house more or less reliable than another copper of fiber-optic cable?"
I don't know. Yet I've lost power, internet, and cable many many times each (I live in the NE US), but never phone. One person doesn't make a trend, but I would like to know why that one copper cable is a hell of a lot more reliable than any other cable coming into the house. - Haecceity, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1A two year old article. Buried.
- bradleyland, on 10/10/2007, -1/+2If I said "task-critical" everyone would look at me like one of those people who always misquote common phrases. Mission-critical is a pretty common term used to express items that are critical to the success of our.... mission. So, um, yeah, we'll continue to use it. Thanks.
- delgotit99, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1No I mean $15 a year.
- mountaincable, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1"VoIP doesn't work over dial-up."
Really?! - CircleFusion, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Are you sure about that?
With 70 people, you would only need about maybe 15 lines (I'm guessing...do they all need to use the phone at the same time?)
I spoke with a VOIP provider a couple weeks ago. He said each phone connection takes around 90Kbps.
15 x 90Kbps = 450Kbps
15 hardwire phone lines on a business plan would cost a lot more per line.
If fiber is in your area, then you won't have any issues with meeting bandwidth requirements for a while without breaking the budget. - rajulkabir, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1I totally disagree. I use VoIP every day, and occasionally use POTS. The quality of the VoIP connections is consistently better.
Maybe you've been using a ***** VoIP service? - bepo, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1For those of you using a VOIP provider in an office building you may want to check your local building codes. There are some places that specifically state that the fire alarm panel must be supplied directly with a copper phone line. The theory is that if you have an electrical fire the panel can still dial out. BTW: this means can't run your alarm off a PBX line either.
- rajulkabir, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1"As a residential Vonage subscriber and avid bittorrenter, voice quality is highly compromised when I have torrents running at good speeds. I am quite convinced Vonage (residential anyway) does not have a managed network for voice packets."
This makes no sense. Your bittorrent usage is entirely unrelated to the existence or non-existence of Vonage's managed network.
Your statement is like saying, "I plugged an air conditioner, vacuum cleaner, and arc welder into the same outlet, and the fuse blew. I am quite convinced the electricity company does not have measures to ensure reliable delivery of power." - mono, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1It might rock for REALLY small business, but my 70 user shop would need to spend more on the additional bandwidth for adequate VOIP throughput, than it costs them for traditional phone service.
- andreo, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1I work for a company that among other things has a call center for 2 major clients. Thousands of calls every day. All the calls come through VOIP.
Is phone service mission critical at this place? You bet your ass it is! It's the main reason that the site exists.
The funny thing is, we were rolling out VOIP at about the time this article was written.
Andre just in case any is wondering we are using Cisco equipment on our VOIP infrastructure. - ubertimmo, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1thumbs up on making milk go through my nose with the "you dumb douche" phrase!!!!
- Frezzle, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1stick your fugly ads in your ass
- rajulkabir, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1I find this very difficult to believe, unless you are in a seriously underdeveloped country.
- Error601, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1VoIP != VoIP over the Internet.
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Reason #1....because your VoIP company may be managed by ex-AOL executives who are constantly asking: "So....where are these tubes you speak of?"
Hurray Sunrocket! At least they refunded me for the unused service, and now I'm with a MUCH more reliable provider, "Teleblend." I'm convinced that's their company name because it was the only seemingly sensicle domain name available at the time that include the "tele" pre-fix.
Jokes aside, I'm still glad I have VoIP because I don't have to give Verizon $40/mo. $15/mo is more appropriate for such a trivial amount of bandwidth. - reddikilowatt, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Yep. AT&T (the old long distance company) completed their VoIP over ATM backbone in 1998. They had a press release or two about it, right around the time they completed their GNOC and integrated the old IBM global data network (mostly taking the sales group over).Then they messed up the cable industry and all hell broke loose, but that's another story...
These days, Quest advertises data and "digital voice" for a low, low price. I have a feeling they are moving you to a VoIP over DSL solution in order to avoid regulated phone rates, but haven't investigated it. At any rate, the only thing traditional in a POTS line these days is the connection to your concentrator is still copper. After that, who knows... - bepo, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Oh yeah we had one of those rock solid VOIP providers with SLA's and the works. The problem is, during the peak hours of the work day all the fax machines would burp and retry over and over until about 7pm when traffic dropped off. The VOIP provider swore they had no issues but suggested we try cutting our fax speed to 9600 baud. That helped but at times it would still choke for about an hour.
We switched all fax machines to copper and all our fax problems vanished. - inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Reason to use voip.
1. It is free or very inexpensive.
2. AT&T hates it.
That's enough. I'm sold. - artfulreggie, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Buried for being inaccurate. Most "enterprise" companies have the digital infrastructure to install (and lease) VoIP PBXes who provide the software and support they'll need to keep things running. Power outages aside, I only foresee IT complications only so much of which can be blamed on VoIP.
Skype, Vonage et. al. seem suitable enough for small, personal businesses in need of a handful of non-mission critical land lines at an affordable price. - pabster, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1This article reeks of big telco CEO propaganda.
Here's a hint...the POTS network uses VOIP at the switches. So we're all using VOIP to one extent or another.
Skype may not be good enough for "mission critical" operations, but for the average Joe it represents an incredible value.
The days of POTS are numbered. - Hosalabad, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1I'm burying as inaccurate. If you can't make a business decision on your own about technology when you have poor internet or power then VOIP is the least of your concerns. Also if you don't have a grip on your bandwidth utilization, VOIP isn't your concern there.
- mpeters13, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1I wonder who paid for this article to be written... Talk about fluff.
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