I work for a Michigan Based Wireless ISP. www.speednetllc.com, and we offer Voip as part of our broadband service.... Voip, though in infancy in its public arena, is a good and growing product...
our service for voip is 29.95 per month, unlimited us and canada, but you must have our broadband to use our voip. VOIP uses around 28kb of bandwidth, which is very low considering we offer 3M down and 384 up. But your internet connection needs to be solid...
You will see some of the same issues we seen when cell phones started to become viable for all to use. occasionally a woobly sounding voice,some echo on occasion, a dropped call now and then. it is relitively new technology, so has a ways to go to be perfect.
One thing about back feeding your home phone network, you MUST sever the connection between your current land line phone provider and your own home phone network. It simply is not enough to just cancel your current phone service befor you feed your own home phone network. Severing your home phone network is as easy as opening your phone box outside your home, and disconnecting the jumper in the box. usually black and about 4 inches long, just a small phone cord. once that is done, then you can back feed your home phone network from the voip box and have all your household phones on the voip. Porting can be an issue. most large phone companies by law must port your number over, but other amaller companies like CenturyTel do not. for instance, Centrury Tel will lease you the phone number at a price per minute use... not very friendly, but is completely defined by each traditional phone carrier.
Voip, like the new emerging Wireless internet is a VERY HOT market to be in, and improvements are being made DAILY, and it will only be a matter of a bit of time before all voip runs as smoothly as traditional phone networks. and now that the government has stepped in to ensure Voip is compatible with emergency services, 911 service will be available nationwide as soon as the voip providers set their protocals in their networks.
One thing to think of about voip, if you lose power, your internet connection is out, therefore your phone is not available. A problem that can be solved with a UPS attatched to your internet equpipment, router and viop box. A 80.00 UPS should keep power for your internet, voip, and router for a few hrs or more.
we charge no activation services but do charge a 10.00 porting fee, which is what we pay to get the number form your current carrier. a voip box can be leased or purchased with our company. most will purchase as the cost is under 100.00.
at this point all voip does not work with all other services like fax machines, satalite systems, medical equipment. this too will be solved soon, as its one of the major hurdles to be completly jumped. but not all have these hurdles to jump, each voip company, depending on current set up, may already be past this.
Bottom line Voip is here to stay, and is improveing daily. with a solid broadband connection, voip is just the next part of the world wide digital expansion.
Next to the market place, Broadband TV. Soon Very Soon.
Timothy Locke