VoIP Tech Chat

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…).
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Traveling with Fred and Patrick can be adventurous. If nothing else, the facial expression of the unlucky passenger winning the “I got to share a seat with Fred or Patrick on Plane” lotto is fantastic. Yes, we need to diet, but that’s another post. Besides the adventures in spacial planning one must overcome to sit on a plane these days, communication while traveling also provides challenges. Thankfully, the majority of places travelled provide wireless Internet access — via either HotSpot or, our favorite, Free WiFi. Mmmmmm… free WiFi.

VoIP allows us to connect like never before. Sure, most (if not all of this audience) use Mobile phones; but there are times where a cellular signal simply doesn’t exist. And with a cellular phone, you don’t have complete direct access to all of your “local” functions. Enter the WiFi phone — perfect for those times where you have ample WiFI signal and simply don’t feel like running your softphone client.

With most WiFi VoIP phones, one easily connects to the Wireless Access Point, registers, and makes calls. However, if the WiFi network requires a “click through” acceptance, a web logon, or a similar HTTP (web page) acceptance, the Wireless VoIP telephone becomes as useless as Brussels Sprouts in a buffet.

The Linksys WIP330 WiFi VoIP Phone includes a web browser, complete with mouse capabilities, allowing you to logon to hotspots, click ok buttons, or do any of the commonly required tasks of gaining access to WiFi networks. This one feature not only makes the WIP330 stand out from the crowd, it also makes it one of the only devices you can use while traveling.

Fred purchased a Linksys WIP330 in early August and is ready for the 3 month review…

First the Negatives

Battery Life: You’ll charge the phone every day. And, if you use the phone heavily, perhaps 2x / day. On the positive, the included cord is long enough to allow use of the phone while charging.

Voice Quality: Although no complaints from “the other side” of the conversation were received, the voice quality can be choppy; regardless of the codec used.

Overall Quality: Poor. Within three months, my speaker seems to have blown, causing the ringer to sound like a robot screaming for help while trapped in a well.

Any Positives?

Usage: Easy to use, saves WEP passwords, remembers last location.

Hotspot: Works GREAT at hotspots, airports, restaurants, schools, and every WiFi access point tested.

Bottom Line?

Decent WiFi phone with the ability to access almost any hotspot imaginable. Battery life needs improvement. If you need a WiFi phone that must be used at hotspots or Access Points with click through agreements, this is your phone. If you don’t need it, it’s a little too expensive for what you get

Pike & Fischer recently published their Residential VoIP Market Outlook. The reports advises that more than 8.5 million household will start using VoIP within 2 years — bringing the estimated number of US residential VoIP users to 30 million by 2010. Clearly 2010 will be a VoIP odyssey.

Traditional POTS providers such as at&t and Verizon will notice decreasing numbers of residential customers while stand alone VoIP providers (such as Vonage, Packet 8, and voip.com), Cable companies, and wireless providers pick up the slack.

Imagine this scenario — You’re the bus driver. At your first stop, half of your passengers get off the bus and none get on. You keep driving and on the next stop, half of the remaining passengers get off, and again, no new passengers get on the bus. At the next stop, the same thing happens. You keep seeing passengers get off the bus, but no one is getting on. Now, what do you do? If you’re at&t, you raise the price of bus service. (For extra credit, who’s the bus driver?)

The Tennessean posted today that at&t is raising the rates of basic phone service and calling features in the hopes of increasing profits. Although basic phone service would increase by “pennies,” other features would see a much more significant increase. For example, Caller ID and Call Forwarding would increase about a dollar and bundle packs would increase about 2 dollars. Oh, and at&t reported a profit of 3.46 billion dollars — in just the first quarter.

So now, you’re a landline service provider. People are dropping landline service for VoIP and Wireless Only plans. You’re making an average of just over a billion dollars a month profit. You want that number to increase. So, you raise rates? Wouldn’t that make people jump ship even more? So, instead of making your services more attractive, you’re going to jack up prices on your loyal customers who are chosing to stay with you despite cheaper alternatives. Nice.

We love this quote:

A spokeswoman for AT&T, Dawn Benton, said the company’s decision to raise rates had nothing to do with the loss of landlines.

“Our focus is to bring greater value to our plans: a unified portfolio, greater consistency and simpler pricing right up front,” she said in a statement. “Even with these changes, we still offer some of the best values and offers in the market today.”

VoIP providers like voip.com, Vonage, and Packet8 bundle residential service and include more features than you’ll ever need. Oh, and most plans include long distance, too. Someone needs to help Dawn Benton find a clue.

Verizon recently announced new discounts for wireless only customers interested in Internet or television service. Called the “Flex Double Play” bundle, the discount offers a reduction of $8 – $12 a month for people combining Verizon Wireless with broadband or TV services.

Now, remember of course, that Verizon originates from the traditional POTS provider, Bell Atlantic. Back in the 80’s (1983 to be exact), when there was one big phone company called Bell, the US government decided that Americans would benefit from 7 companies instead of 1 big one. The 7 smaller phone companies, or “Baby Bells” were to handle local phone service and allow other companies to handle long distance.

With that historical digression, please remember that Verizon essential developed from this split; therefore sometimes still thinks like a traditional POTS provider.

How so you ask?

Well, the discount sounds great — but the big phone companies just don’t know how to provide something without conditions. If you want the fastest DSL or FiOS plans, you get no discount. The discount will only be offered towards DSL plans of 3 mbps and FiOS plans of 20 mbps.

Still, if you don’t want the best of the best, saving up to $12 a month still adds up to a nice deal. Maybe they should read our Wireless Only article to learn more about Wireless Only customers.

When we see “government study,” we’re often immediately sent into a digression of thought. What would possibly motivate an official to take tax-revenue and give it to a group of government employees to learn about something of this nature. And then, we usually get so frustrated that we turn to the bottle for answers. This being said, more often than not, a study that you could never imagine as needed will generally provide at least one or two interesting results.

The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) exists (in theory) “to promote health and quality of life by preventing and controlling disease, injury, and disability.” For more than 60 years, the CDC has pursued malaria, studied plagues, eliminated polio, fought small pox, and even studied cell-phone usage. Um… studied cell-phone usage? Yeah, that one caught our eye, too.

At first, we were under the belief that maybe the CDC had investigated the rumors of cell-phone brain cancer or something to that degree, but as John Pinnett would say, “Nay Nay.” 

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