Concerns About VoIP
Can I use VoIP with the phone I already have?
Yes. You can use your existing phone with the VOIP number system. What they're going to do is give you an ATA device. This is a box and what that allows you to plug your network into one port of the box and on the other side is a standard phone jack (RJ11), where you're going to plug in your standard analogue phone into.
Can I keep my old phone number if I switch to VoIP?
Taking over your existing phone number onto a web system is using a process called local number portability, or LNP. Basically, you fill out a form and you authorize the new carrier, which is going to be Vonage or Skype or whoever, to take over your service or your phone number and as you give this carrier a letter of agency, they will take over that phone number and you will start using their service on the new system.
Can I keep my phone number if I move?
In the Voice Over IP would, there are no area codes or restrictions so basically you can have a New York number even though you live in California because the Voice Over IP system is virtual. You can have, you know, if you take a phone or a system that you purchase in New York and bring that phone over to California, you can make a Phone call but your Phone Number is attached to that device and so if you move that Phone over, you're calling out from that area code and the Voice Over IP system doesn't care. It's traveling over the internet and so it's not location specific.
How is the call quality in VoIP?
So call quality typically will be good with Voice Over IP. However, if you're doing a large download or if you have latency on your network, you may experience like echo or static on the line or even drop outs in your voice or you could have a dropped call altogheter.So you want to make sure you have POS on the router that's providing you the Voice Over IP.QOS is Quality of Service and what that does is it proritizes your voice traffic over your data traffic and allows your voice to always be first whether you're downloading information or uploading information.It is a way to ensure that your call qualitly is always good.
What is 'latency' and how does it effect VoIP?
Latency is when data packets are traveling across the internet and they're slow. Typically data packets travel back and forth and it's within a hundred miliseconds say for example. But when you have high latency, it could be two hundred miliseconds or even more, and that is very damaging to a VoIP call; it'll cause echo on the line or it'll cause buffering or any kind of choppiness on the phone call, so you do not want to have latency on your calls.
Will my VoIP work if my Internet is down?
VoIP will not work if your Internet is down. Your voice calls are traveling over the Internet so if you lose that connectivity, you will not be able to make an outbound call. Now there are some devices that will allow you to roll over to a back up line such as a analog pots line which is a standard phone line in emergency situations. But in most cases if your Internet is down, you are not going to be able to make a call.
Can I call 911 with VoIP?
When you sign up with your service provider for a Voice over IP line you have to register your city, state and address with that provider and they enter it into a database, that's a special database it's an E91 database. So when you call 911 they're able to look up your information and know where to dispatch the emergency services to. So the 911 does work, it has to be registered, if you do not register an address they won't know where to send the emergency services to.
Can I fax with VoIP?
Some providers say that you can fax with VoIP, but there are a lot of problems. There's a technology called T38, which allows you to receive and send faxing over that protocol, and the results have been mixed. In most cases, one or two pages will work, but in large faxing documents, it will probably fail. You might want to check with your service provider and see if that product is supported.
Can I try VoIP before I commit to using it at home?
Yes, most service providers give you a 30 day trial to try their service. However, some require a contract that you must sign. Some are month to month, so it just depends on the service provider. The problem is if you port your number over to a service and you decide you don't like their service and you want to switch back, you may lose your phone number because you can't port that number back to Verizon, or whoever you were with before.
