VoIP Tech Chat

When my little girl went from being a benign, unmoving lump of sleeping, drooling baby to a terroristic unplugging, biting, chewing, eating, swallowing, gagging, breaking, pulling, tugging beast of a toddler, my home decor changed. When we moved into our excessive 4 bed / 2.5 bath home in 2007, we had dreams. We had a guest room, and a Disney room, and my home office taking up about 25% of the under A/C space. When the beast began terrorizing our home, we retreated into a fallback position and isolated her to the safest room in the house, my former office. I was relegated to Read the rest of this entry »

Ok. If you’re even considering VoIP, you’ve probably had to deal with the dreaded network cables. But, if you’re a tech buff, then you’ve had to deal with Cable after Cable after Cable. Well, we all know that the tangle gods have designed cables for the amusement as they watch us mere mortals attempt to wrap, coil, or wind or corded cable into manageable objects. And with all out effort, we end up with a cable knot that only Superman could untangle.

Fear not our friends. Education and blogging have come together. And with the assistance of You Tube, we present the Cable Wrapping master and his lessons of VoIP Telephone Adapter Cord love. Ok, well he’s using speaker wire… but still. Enjoy.

Cable Wrapping – Make VoIP easier

Something just didn’t add up to us. So we looked to the Interweb for research, because as we all know, the Interweb is only filled with 100% accurately researched articles. Anyway, the good folks at Telephony Online, published a snazzy little article back in September 2007 about the way MagicJack earns revenue on their VoIP internet telephone adapter.

Apparently, while one hand created the the VoIP USB telephone adapter “jack,” the other hand created a CLEC. The acronym CLEC stands for Competitive Local Exchange Carrier and is the phone provider (or carrier) for local access numbers. These CLEC’s can charge for access to their numbers as well as lower costs paid to other parties for making or receiving calls. It’s quite the win/win.

MagicJack’s Don Burns explained that SunRocket was paying upwards of $7.00 per month for each phone number they had. By operating as a CLEC, MagicJack’s cost on the same service — zilch.

Talk about pulling a rabbit out of a hat!

CNet reported today that T-Mobile will be entering the VoIP market in a very big way.

By launching their @Home service nationwide, T-Mobile will be offering a home VoIP telephone line to their current wireless customers. With unlimited local and long-distance (domestic) for only $10.00 / month, T-Mobile will certainly attract many new customers.

The telephone line will use an existing high speed Internet connection to send phone service to their equivalent of a VoIP adapter. This adapter apparently will also be compatible with their Hotspot @Home service.

That $10.00 a month price tag (plus taxes and typical fees of course) is an amazing price. And we’re sure some Vonage customers are already doing a double-take.

The AP reported today that MagicJack recently became the fastest-growing phone company in the United States. And we thought that only Fred and Patrick were up at 4am to watch those super, high-quality infomercials.

The parent company, YMax Corp out of Palm Beach, Florida, released sales figures showing 8 – 9000 sales per day. The MagicJack device sells for just under 40 dollars and includes a year of free calls within the United States and Canada. An additional year of phone “service” costs an additional $19.95.

Why put service in quotes? Right now, you are unable to transfer your existing number to magicjack; and according to their website, there will be a nominal fee when LNP becomes available.

With a device that requires connection to your home computer to both make and receive phone calls, this service truly has differences with “traditional” VoIP telephone providers such as Vonage, Voip.com, and Packet8. But, at $40 for a year of service, will anyone care? If you care to read more, Michael Graves has a nice little post about Magic Jack on his blog.

No, we’re not talking about another take on the Black Eyed Peas song (Alanis Morissette’s is our favorite). Instead, we’re talking about a new business service from Packet 8.

Voip Trunking provides a method of connecting POTS equipment or conventional telephone equipment with a Voice over Internet (VoIP) network. Vonage, Voip.com, and Packet8 already ship out phones and adapters (or ATAs) for their residential services. These ATAs are essentially VoIP Trunks.

Many companies already offer Business VoIP service to “any” device. For example, both Voip.com and VoicePulse (along with many other providers) offer a BYOD (bring your own device) business service; allowing a user to connect their current equipment to the provider’s network (Voip.com also provides BYOD residential service). Packet 8 however seems to truly embrace the non-voip office. 

Most other providers require some knowledge or existing experience with integration. BYOD plans basically are geared towards a user who knows what they want and can either integrate the service themselves or hire a consultant for assistance. Here’s where Packet 8’s offering differs. VoIP-News reports that Packet 8 will be including installation of the Trunking service to the customer’s system. Of course, this is not free. With installation costs of $1,500.00 (including the internet voip trunk gateway), it may be cheaper to get a consultant to integrate a different provider.

However, for Packet 8 to sell the installation, device, and connectivity as one package — well, that’s a really good idea for a non-tech savvy office.

If you don’t like the weather, wait a minute. It’s been heard in Florida, Michigan, California, Texas, and basically every location imaginable. It’s most likely an evolution of a Mark Twain quote, “If you don’t like the weather in New England, just wait a few minutes.” Well, it’s time once again for Fred and Patrick to blatantly steal from others and apply it to VoIP. So, with this amazingly long-winded introduction, we say…

If you don’t like the current telephone technology, wait a few minutes.

Imagine the technology we use and take for granted today. And now think how kids today believe that the old phone you have plugged into the wall is as antiquated as an 8-track tape (if they know what that is).
Read the rest of this entry »

In this week’s voip cast, we have a special guest in Fred’s studio — Patrick!! Patrick joins Fred for a face to face voip chat with topics covering Tom Petty, Kid Rock, Earth Day Birthday, and a hammer.

Did you know that Paula Abdul had a hit with Rush, Rush? Not Fred, he lost a hammer thinking it was Hush, Hush.

Check out the newest voip tech chat on your computer, mp3 player, or ipod. Download it today from:

• iTunes
• Voip Tech Chat (mp3)
• Voip.com (streaming audio)

To paraphrase the great George Michael:

VoIP is natural – VoIP is good
Not everybody does it
But everybody should

Why would we paraphrase George Michael? Why not is the better question. You see, at VoipTechChat, we strive to be different. We don’t want to just talk about a 1979 Chevy Malibu… we want to talk about cooking with a 1979 Chevy Malibu. We’re not going to talk about a Buick LeSabre… we’re going to talk about jumping a Buick LeSabre that you could call it the General Lee. 

What was the question again? Oh yeah…. so what’s VoIP?

First of all, ask your self this question… Do you know what is Http?

Now, this is going to be like one of those Choose Your Adventure books, where you get a different answer based on your selection. But at VoipTechChat, we’re kind of lazy, so we’re just going to go ahead and post both answers here in the same post… but you’re on the honor system to only read your choice.

So… the question was, do you know what is http?

NO, I do not know what is http:

Ok… don’t worry. Most people don’t. It’s ok. We don’t think any less of you — we promise. For the record, if you’re reading this, you’re using a web browser… and http is the computer technology that allows this page to display. No biggie… the bottom line is even though you don’t know what http is, you still used it. Wow… pretty deep isn’t it? Alas, VoIP is the technology that allows your phone to use the Internet. But, since you don’t know what http is and you still visit websites, you can relax… “Forget about it.” Voip is internet phone. It works like a regular phone, but uses the Internet instead of the house wires. And that’s all you need to know.

YES, I know http. I am a Dungeon Master and I own 3 pocket protectors:

Sweet! Well, my 20 sided friend, VoIP is an acronym standing for…. wait for it… Voice Over Internet Protocol. Wow… pretty amazing, huh?

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. You know star trek? (of course you do) Well, VoIP is like a transporter — for voice. The transporter on your end is a special phone (or adapter) that takes your voice, turns it into digital “packets” and then sends it on it’s way… and it also turns other digital packets into voice… allowing you to have an actual conversation. It’s pretty cool.

So, Voip is digital, internet phone service. To use Voip, you need 4 basic things:

1. Electricity
2. Internet (Generally high speed internet)
3. A VoIP phone or adapter
4. A VoIP service provider

That’s it? Yes, that’s it. Pretty sad really.

We will now open the forum for discussion…

First question comes from Mike in the hills of Oregon: Fred and Patrick. Love the show… long time listener… first time caller. Anyway, I don’t have electricity, can I still use VoIP?
  

No. You need electricity. Sorry. Please don’t mail us any more special packages by the way.

Mary from Utah asks: Patrick… I love your stories… huge fan… if I don’t have Internet, can I still use the Internet Phone?  

Hi Mary… um… well… Internet is pretty important for VoIP. Without the Internet, it would just be VoP. And nobody wants to use VoP. So, no, you cannot use an Internet Phone without the Internet.

Have a question for Fred and  Patrick? Ask it now… watch… we’ll really respond.