FAQ: Demystifying VoIP

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millions of devotees. On most days, there are about 3 million people making calls over the Skype service.

What does it cost to call traditional phones from my PC?
Typically, it's less than 2 cents a minute. For instance, Skype just lowered its fees to about 1.7 cents a minute, on average, for VoIP calls made to traditional phones.

What happens when the power goes out?
While traditional telephones continue to operate when the power goes out, your VoIP service goes down. That is because the modem you use to deliver your broadband service requires electricity. While traditional phone systems actually deliver power to your phone, broadband networks can't do that.

What if I call 911? Will my call get through to an emergency dispatcher?
In general, 911 calls cannot be reliably made using a VoIP service. But VoIP providers in the United States are under a looming deadline to make it possible to dial 911 and reach the appropriate emergency call center. That capability is several months away, however. Most VoIP operators suggest keeping a cell phone on hand just for emergency calls. The exceptions are VoIP services provided by cable operators, all of which have the appropriate agreements in place to supply what's known as "enhanced 911."

What does VoIP cost?
In the United States, it's about $25 a month for unlimited dialing between PCs and to any phone number in North America. Some operators sell VoIP for as little as $15 a month, but that's an exception rather than the rule. VoIP providers also typically give away analog phone adapters and their software. Calls overseas typically cost between 2 and 15 cents a minute, depending on which nation you're calling.

Given growing concern about VoIP customer service, are VoIP users given the same legal guarantees of service as traditional phone customers?
Most VoIP operators don't guarantee any particular level of service, although the trade-off there is that they also don't require customers to sign multiyear service contracts.

Related story
FCC establishes Net telephony E911 task force

Task force will educate consumers, enforce providers' compliance of 911 service rules.

The overall quality of Internet phone service still lags behind that of traditional landlines. But there is recourse for those who feel they are being mistreated by their VoIP operators: Both the Federal Trade Commission and your regional branch of the Better Business Bureau handle consumer complaints.

How secure are my calls?
There are few clearer signs that an information technology has hit the mainstream than when it becomes the focus of security attacks. Only two consumer-focused operators--Skype and VoicePulse--encrypt their calls, a method of keeping the digital packets that constitute VoIP signals from being decoded by hackers. Almost all of the VoIP systems installed in businesses, meanwhile, use current encryption techniques.

Cable VoIP

I noticed an inaccuracy in your article with respect to Cable provided VoIP service. I work for Charter Communications, in support of it's local telephone service, and have some knowlege here. Most of our areas are serviced using VoIP technology, however we DO offer primary line telephone service, as do most other Cable Telephony providers.

The inaccuracy I noticed in this story is that we DO guarantee the same level of service as POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) providers, on and off of our network. In fact, calls that leave our network travel to the rest of the telephone network using the same technologies, and interconnect relationships used in the rest of the POTS world. This means that those calls are treated with every bit as much urgency as any other POTS telephone call.

One other point I'd make is that while we do install equipment at the home in order to facilitate the connection, and this equipment does require a local power source, it is battery backed up so as to provide service even in the event of a power outage. As a vast majority of power outages are shorter in duration than the 8 to 24 hour capacity of these batteries, you are unlikely to see any disruption in service as a result of a power outage. In fact, if a power outage lasts longer than that, it's probable that the POTS lines have been affected as well.

We have more information available on our web site: www.charter.net., You can also find more information on much of the equipment in use by cable telephone providers at the Arris, and Nortel web sites, found using a web search.

A Slight Quibble...

...I tried to investigate your QoS claim on the Charter site, but hit a wall when I was instructed to check out state Public Service Commission requirements...

Once your calls are inserted into the public switched telephone network, of course they have the same QoS as the telephone network; however, the only QoS comment on the Charter site is the following:

*** "we are required to maintain a reliability rate of 99.9 percent for local telephone service." ***
http://support2.charter.com/support/telephone/contentredirect.asp?sprt_cid=996f4ebc-288c-4984-b3c7-18620828abbc

This of course flies in the face of your post's QoS claims, as the PSTN has FIVE nines of reliability, which, for the layman, is 99.999%

I have cable-VoIP. I like my cable-VoIP. But it ain't POTS-QoS unless (and until) it's POTS.

[ntrsource]

5 million users? WHAT!

5 million users? WHAT! where did you pick that number. Remember this is not the lottery Ben.

WOW this story about VoIP is the most misleading story I have read in a long time by a Staff Writer... ANY Staff Writer. 5 Million users? where did you get that number from Ben. It would be the same as if you claimed that the hula hoop was the most used fitness device being sold in the USA today, who would believe that unless you owned one and I sure don't. First let me correct you by saying that SKYPE has had more than 140 million downloads as of today with more than 20 million people using their service daily. Close or a little above this number are paying subscribers which you correctly mentioned pay only about 1.7 cents per minute. VONAGE and all the others charges an arm and a leg plus as you correctly stated must sign long term contracts. By the way I got to give you some credit, I think this is the first time anyone besides myself has ever told people in these articles that a contract must be signed prior to using their service. Let's take VONAGE for an example, they spend close to $200 in advertising to acquire one paying customer that will be paying $14.95 per month and as time goes by they will get up to the $24.95... what else is new?.
Well let me tell you what's new. The AdCallsCommunicator, that's right. The AdCallsCommunicator gives you FREE VoIP and I mean FREE VoIP service. Call any telephone in the USA and Canada, Puerto Rico, Hawaii and Alaska, you can even call GUAM absolutely FREE. All you need is a computer and you can call ANY telephone, Cell Phone, Home phone or business phone for FREE right there from your computer. You can even call from Mexico and several other countries without spending a dime by utilizing the AdCallsCommunicator which are FREELY available from companies such as http://www.CallOnMyDime.com, http://www.GratisCoupons.com, http://www.AdCallsCommunicator.com and from http://www.NTRSource.com. If you haven't already downloaded your VIRTUAL Cell Phone then do it NOW, do it today and please tell a friend. With close to 18,000 downloads per day these companies above sure are doing the right thing which are, let people make these calls for FREE and at least have just one thing to get excited about. Try to live by what I was once told. "If you are willing to do what others won't, you will have tomorrow what others don't".
Make it a great day...

[Rod Adams]

Infrastructure investment support

As I read about VOIP, I cannot help but wonder who is going to
make the infrastructure investments required to improve the
quality of service for ever increasing numbers of subscribers
that are using the common network infrastructure for free.

If there is no revenue model, I cannot begin to guess who is
going to buy the switches, routers, and fiber devices necessary
to keep the packets flowing.

Secondarily, as large numbers of people leave traditional phone
providers with their heavily taxed services, how will local and
state governments replace the lost revenue? Will they continue
to allow the Internet services to ride for free? What will happen
to some of the minimum service level phone services that are
provided as a lifeline to people and subsidized by all other
subscribers? Most of those people do not see "all you have to
have is a computer and a broadband connection" as a
reasonable hurdle for simply wanting a phone in case of
emergencies.

Oh noes!!!

You think maybe, just maybe, that state & local gov't might think of a new tax? Naw, they'd never do that. MEGO