Residential VoIP - No Operators

Some say the media sensationalizes our economic woes for their personal gain. Others say the media accurately portrays the extreme financial burdens we find ourselves facing. And some people say, “Hey. I don’t care about anything, I always have and always will try to save money.” With today’s world becoming increasingly digital, VoIP (digital telephone) seems like a naturally good idea.

Clearly, we at VoIP Tech Chat advocate VoIP. We love it. We love it so much, we made a website called VoIP Tech Chat. And we actually now and then have chats and write articles on VoIP (ok, that last part was a little sarcastically since both Patrick and Fred seem to have been too busy to actually talk or write lately… but anyway…).

Residential Telephone Service and VoIP

If you can read this, you probably live somewhere. Or you’re a robot… which would be AWESOME since we are desperately trying to increase our robotic readership, but seriously, most people in our “audience” live somewhere and have residential phone service. Well, we should say most people used to have residential phone service.

Ten years ago, Mobile Phones were a novelty. Today, they are viewed as a necessity. In the United States, more people have wireless phone service than have traditional landline (POTS) telephone service. And, even with higher drop rates, lower voice quality, and service availability issues, 1/3rd of the current US population live in “wireless only” households (interestingly a very small percentage live in a landline only household, with the group represented mostly by persons “well over” retirement age).

There are some disadvantages to the Wireless Only approach, including emergency calling (aka 911), coverage, name listing in directories, and cost. If you are a “heavy” talker, your wireless phone bill can be very costly depending on your usage. The advantages include calling features (such as caller id and voicemail), having your phone with you at all times, and (interestingly enough) the ability to make emergency calls away from the house.

But wait… isn’t this VoIP Tech Chat? Yes Virgina… let’s continue. VoIP generally provides advanced (and included) calling features, “unlimited” local/long distance calling, inexpensive international rates, and all at a price less than your traditional POTS landline service. The negatives with VoIP? VoIP 911 service does not compare to landline usage. Although most VoIP providers implement an e911 service, the reliability of VoIP for emergency calls does not compare to a landline. A landline simply provides better 911 service, period. (we actually wrote a pretty decent article about VoIP and 911 back in the day… )

Landline POTS telephone service remains the most reliable telephone service available. The consistently maintain five-nine (99.999%) availability and provide the best access to emergency service (911). POTS service also comes with a limited feature set (by default) and hefty price tag.

Let’s compare VoIP, Traditional Telephone, and Wireless

Verizon Unlimited Local service starts at $24.95 per month. If you wanted Caller ID, Voicemail, and Call Waiting (with Caller ID) your bill jumps up to $51.90 — which is absolutely ridiculous, considering this price is the pre-tax rate.

Vonage offers an “unlimited” Local and Long Distance service for $24.95 monthly which includes more than 25 features (such as Caller ID, Call Waiting, and Voicemail). VoIP.com offers the same package for $19.95 (or more than $30 less a month than Verizon). Now, the “unlimited” voice on VoIP providers tends to be around 5,000 minutes a month or so. If you go over it, expect a notice.

Cellular Service ranges anywhere from $30 – $130 monthly per phone depending on the options you choose. By the time you reach the high end, you’re generally getting unlimited minutes and data (mobile web, email, etc.).

For a typical household, VoIP remains a very cost-effective telephone solution; although you must remember that without good (and we mean good), high-speed Internet, your VoIP will be unusable. Many local phone companies offer a “dial tone only” line for less than $15.00 monthly. With the use of VoIP and a dial-tone only landline, you can still save more than $150.00 yearly while providing your family a reliable method of calling during emergencies and power outages.

As Billy Joel would say, it comes down to reality, and that’s fine with me. If you need to tighten the belt, VoIP can help. However if you can get by without having high speed Internet and don’t mind using the mobile phone all the time, you may be fine with becoming a “wireless only” household. Or you may not care about money whatsoever and decide to have all three maxed out.

Either way, when you do realize the benefit of VoIP and embrace the force, we’re here to help.

Well, we have only 2 comments:

1. No Star Wars or Dungeons & Dragons references?
2. Two Words: Ben Affleck

Seriously, it’s a nice post. And if you liked it, please check out:

• What is a VoIP?
• What is POTS?
• What is DTMF?
• How does 911 work with VoIP?
• and the opinion piece, Mommy, What’s a Phone Cord?

And, remember, this week is the special Hanson edition of VoIP Tech Chat.

As always, VoIP Tech Chat can be accessed from:

• Voip Tech Chat (download mp3) 
• iTunes
• And, thanks to popular request, you can also stream the chat by pressing the play button below
  Download audio file (080618_01.mp3)

Looking for more information or bunny reenactments? Check out these great links: 
 

• Hanson 
• Starbucking Movie 
• Cox Cable 
• Social Security VoIP Deployment Article 
• Nortel 
• New York City New Year’s Eve
• VoIP 911 Article 
• Senate Bill Article 
• Verizon / Thing5 Article 
• Life Alert 
• Angry Alien Rabbits  
• Ben Affleck on IMDB 
• Jersey Girl 

By the way, for more information on how a bill becomes a law, please listen, read, and buy School House Rock’s “I’m Just a Bill.” Everyone together now, I’m just a bill, Yes I’m only a bill….

So, back in 2005 when Vonage started gaining popularity in the residential telephone game, the FCC decided that VoIP providers should be required to provide enhanced 911 to their subscribers by 2006. Well, VoIP providers did their best, but 911 routing definitely does not come in a one-size-fits-all type of system. Every 911 center has their own integration and traditionally had been controlled specifically by brick and mortar POTS companies; who weren’t super pleased with integrating their services to companies stealing their customers.

VoIP providers asked the FCC for extensions and basically Congress came in and decided that more laws should be created to help the process.

The Act (H.R. 3403) requires the FCC to regulate VoIP to 911 connectivity and ensure VoIP providers receive access to 911 and enhanced 911 centers.The bill also sets into place how much local governments can charge VoIP carriers for these connections.

So, the bottom line?

Get ready for improved access to 911 from VoIP providers and get ready for more 911 taxes on your VoIP line.

A copy of the 911 Modernization and Public Safety Act of 2007 report can be downloaded right here from VoIP Tech Chat.

Before you flip out and say to yourself, “My goodness (we’re keeping it G-Rated), 30 million dollars a year on phones??? What is our government thinking?”

Shocking as it may seem, we at Voip Tech Chat applaud the Social Security Administration’s decision. Sure, as huge (again easy with the fat jokes please) fans of Benjamin Franklin, Patrick and Fred often are publicly vocal and critical of decisions made by the US Government. Yet, when a good decision is made, we try to be equally supportive.

Let’s look at this more closely… 

The SSA will replace phones in more than 1,600 offices. The physical cost alone for installing VoIP servers, phones, and systems in a project like this astounds us. This simply is a huge undertaking.

The SSA currently uses a standard PBX (private branch exchange – typically corporate phone systems) “nearing the end of it’s life cycle.” This translates to a replacement cost even if VoIP is not implemented. Here’s where VoIP starts to make sense.

A PBX system generally utilizes separate wiring from your data network and provides minimal (if any) portability. For example, John Q Public uses an office on the 2nd floor and because of a leaky window needs to move to a new office. With a PBX system, a physical update is generally needed to give John a phone. Wether this is re-wiring, updating the physical PBX system, or in most cases doing both, there are often many people needed to simply allow John to get calls. And when John moves back to the 2nd Floor, the process starts all over again. You’re most likely looking at 4 hours labor per move and the use of 2 – 3 employees. Compare this with a VoIP system – step one, John moves phone to new location. That’s it. No more steps. It’s done.

Since the SSA uses a private network across their locations, John could even move to a new location and still use the same phone with little or most-like no interaction with tech personnel.

When creating new SSA offices, there will be no reason to run analog phone lines (except to the main phone switch as the SSA will be using local POTS lines for 911 service). Supports calls will be handled remotely and the phone system will be managed primarily from a centralized location.

In the long run, savings generated from the initial investment will benefit all of us who pay taxes. Although the initial investment’s price tag seems high, realizing the future savings as well as the minimal difference between a new VoIP system compared to a new PBX system. Not only can the SSA benefit from new features, dynamic call routing, and lower cost of service, additional costs will also be lower due to the very nature of VoIP (speaking of nature, we will plan a Nature episode of Voip Tech Chat where Fred and Patrick hunt VoIP devices in the wild). VoIP upgrades are generally software related, allowing hardware to be reused with new systems or newer versions of existing platforms; eliminating the need for such extensive upgrades in the future. 

We applaud the decision to upgrade to VoIP and look forward to more federal agencies making the switch.

Related Links:

• FedTech Magazine, “Voip Lessons Learned From SSA” (Great Article)
• Nortel’s SSA Blog Post
• Nortel’s Press Release

Sometimes, to discuss VoIP, we must discuss what VoIP is not — in this case, VoIP is not POTS.

POTS is the common nickname and acronym for Plain Old Telephone Service – you know, the “traditional” phone jack in your wall. The POTS system uses technology that is basically unchanged since the early 1900’s. The wires may be upgraded, sure there’s more features, but the telephone technology in use via POTS is essentially the same technology introduced before there were airplanes, highways, or even household refrigerators.

Background, aka Trivial Knowledge that Patrick would call Interesting

The telephone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell, who along with Thomas Edison, created a method of transferring voice over long distance through the use of connecting wires. Basically, one telephone would be physically connected to another.

Operators manually connected the two-parties together allowing the transfer of voice to occur. Human operators have since been replaced with automatic exchangers; where a computer determines the party you are wishing to talk to and making the connection. This device for automatic transfer is sometimes referred to as a telephone switch and the POTS engineers like to call their telephone network a Public Switched Telephone Network, or PSTN.

VoIP vs POTS

At VoIP Tech Chat, we are huge (no fat jokes please) proponents of Voice over Internet. Go Know. Of course, if we didn’t believe so strongly in Internet Telephone, then having a VoIP Tech Chat website would be a pretty stupid idea.

VoIP differs from POTS in many ways. Fundamentally, the end result is the same. In both systems you pick up a phone, dial a number, and talk to the other party. Other than that, the systems are extremely different. VoIP is digital and does not use wires to physically connect devices. VoIP works by digitzing your voice, sending it over the Internet to the destination, and then having it return to audio on the other side. (If you haven’t done so, you should really read “What is a VoIP?” by Patrick and Fred. It’s a great read and even mentions George Michael)

Like anything, both VoIP and POTS have their own Pros and Cons. Despite POTS technology remaining virtually unchanged since the early 1900’s, the reliability of POTS is unmatched. In fact the level of reliability achieved by POTS is the quintessential “five nines” reliability standard. This means, that with POTS, you can expect to have an outage for less than 6 minutes a year. (That’s why at&t and Verizon engineers make big change)

Now, let’s contrast five nines reliability to VoIP reliability. First, remember that VoIP requires a synergy of several service providers to get a dial tone. (Editor note: first quintessential and now synergy? Wow. Today must be vocab day at Voip Tech Chat) The two main players in VoIP are your Internet Service Provider and your VoIP Service Provider.

Let’s say for example that you were using Vonage as your VoIP provider and Comcast as your ISP. Comcast home Internet service has a 99.9% uptime average; which is very high for the industry. In fact, it would be hard pressed to find an ISP that provides you better than 99.9% uptime. Of course, even though 99.9% uptime is amazing, this translates to 44 minutes of downtime per month. Vonage doesn’t list their uptime average (in their defense, most VoIP companies do not list their uptime. We couldn’t find any for Vonage, VoIP.com, or Packet 8.). So, let’s assume Vonage has a 99% uptime (which is being generous according to the posts we read from users). This translates to an additional 7 hours of outage per month.

For reliability, there is no better choice than POTS. (Which is why many people keep a landline active for 911 service) But if you’re an average phone user willing to weigh Cost against Reliability, VoIP starts to look amazing. Of course, we’ll cover VoIP advantages in another article.

This digression is brought to you courtesy of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy which was a great book, a horrible movie, and a decent mini-series on the BBC… but this, our friends, will be discussed in a VoipTechChat in the future… perhaps over a great meal at the Restaurant at the end of the Universe.

We tell you that story to tell you this story:

911 with VoIP has a simple answer and it has a much more thoughtful answer as well. The simple answer is that normally, 911 with VoIP works great. The in-depth answer of course, is not so simple.

First, we should probably go into a little picture of how VoIP is different than lets say the traditional phone system. We’ll try to paint a picture for you. Let’s close our eyes… scratch that… if you closed your eyes, you wouldn’t keep reading and then how would you know to open them? Please, do not close your eyes… keep them open… ok… where were we? Oh yeah… let’s close one eye and picture a phone near your bed in your bedroom.

Got it in your head? Great…

Now, with the traditional phone company, this phone is connected to the world with a physical wire from your bedroom, down the road, over the hill, through the woods, and then to the telephone company. When you pick up the phone, they can tell, because even though there’s many, many miles between you and the phone company, they are in essence physically connected to you. They know that when you pick up the phone, you’re picking up from your address. They know this, because they know where the wires are… they paid people to put them down your road… so when you call 911, they know exactly what address you’re calling from.

Now, VoIP doesn’t use wires. VoIP uses your Internet connection to digitally connect to your VoIP Service Provider. When you pick up your phone, VoIP is told, hey… they picked up their phone… yeah… user9123123123 picked up their phone and is making a call.

VoIP has no clue where you are. If you were to ask VoIP, Hey… Mr. VoIP, where’s Mary? VoIP would say “I’m not 100% sure. I think Mary’s at her house. And she told me she lives on Mulberry Street.”

So this of course is the first “consideration” of 911 with VoIP. We’re not going to call it an issue… because after all issue is an ugly word. Issue makes you think problem… and this of course isn’t a problem… it’s only something to consider… so we’ll call it a consideration.

Consideration #1: You need to tell your VoIP company your address.

Not that big of a consideration… but, it’s your responsibility to keep that address current.  So, if let’s say you move… and you forget to update your address with your VoIP Service Provider… guess what? If you call 911, they’re going to assume you’re in the old address… and the new people living there… let’s just hope they’re ok with a surprise visit from the Police.

In all seriousness, your VoIP provider probably has a special section for your 911 address… and this is probably different than your billing address. So please, if you move, please, please, please make sure your 911 address is up to date.

Have you ever had the power go out and still got a phone call? If you said yes, chances are… you’re NOT using VoIP. There may not be an I in team, but there sure is an I in VoIP. And it’s an important letter… the I stands for Internet. In pretty much every situation, if your power goes out, your Internet goes out too. Which means, until your Internet comes back online, you have no phone.

Consideration #2: If your Internet goes down, you have no phone.

Be it a power outage or the dog kicking over your modem, if you lose Internet, you’ve lost your ability to call 911. So, you think that you have a super stable Internet connection and you don’t have to worry… Well Riddle me this Batman… what if you need to call 911 to report that your cable modem is on fire. It sounds silly, but I think we’ve made our point as to why this is a consideration.

And, the good news is we really only have 2 considerations. 

If you have 12 kids with health conditions and you have medical needs where 3 seconds could mean the difference between life and death… do not use VoIP for 911. In fact, go ahead and get 12 lines from the phone company… one for each kid.

And better yet, we have a recommendation too…

Our recommendation is that if you decide to use VoIP, you should have an alternate means of calling 911. It could be a cell phone, it could be a “land line”… but we recommend that you have an alternate means of using 911.

And, if you decide that VoIP isn’t right for you… guess what? We recommend that you have an alternate means of using 911. It’s always better to be safe than sorry.

You may also wish to read:

• Introduction to VoIP
• Voip and DTMF
• What is POTS?