Anyone using VoIP?

[The AD]

Vonage has a $24.99/month unlimited calling package. That sounds pretty sweet. Anyone using VoIP? What are the plusses and minuses?

Indy GS started a topic about this several months ago, but only got one response.

[StormDay]

Depending on your needs you might want to check out skype http://www.skype.com.

I use it to talk to a buddy in Europe and the quality is good.

The one minus I have heard of is 911 integration. VOIP is not plugged into the 911 system like your landline. When you call 911 they automatically know where you are. You might want to keep the landline.

[The AD]

The one minus I have heard of is 911 integration. VOIP is not plugged into the 911 system like your landline. When you call 911 they automatically know where you are. You might want to keep the landline.

That pretty much defeats the purpose, though. According to Vonage they do have 911 service that you must activate and tell them your physical location, so I think that's covered.

[StormDay]

That pretty much defeats the purpose

For Vonage's service it would. Unless you are making a significant amount of domestic long distance calls.

Of course, you may want to look at going the mobile phone only route and get a plan w/ free long distance.


from Vonage site on 911:
>>
This means your call goes to a different phone number than standard 911 calls. You will need to state the nature of your emergency promptly and clearly, including your location and telephone number, as Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) personnel will NOT have this information on hand.
Service Outages Can Prevent 911

911 and Vonage Service DO NOT function during an electrical power or broadband provider outage.
>>>

About a year ago we had to call 911, when my daughter stopped breathing. The extra routing time might have made a huge difference. (EMS response time was about 90 seconds)

[INDY GS]

I actually purchased the ATT Callvantage system, and paid everything to get set up, and then Verizon wouldn't let me port my existing number over, so I returned everything. I figured the saving I was going to have with their system, would have been negated by having to get all new Business cards, letterhead, etc reprinted. I work from home so the landline is my business line. I didn't want to have to deal with a business number change and all of those headaches.

That being said, I still really would like to get the system, and as soon as Verizon makes it possible for the legacy system out in my neck of the woods portable, I will be on like stink on shit.

INDY

[StormDay]

If you have DSL there is another thing to beware of. Some telcos require you to have local service on your DSL line.

[joshbu]

It's a great idea. It's finally going to bury POTS once and for all... as soon as we get reliable broadband. I don't know about you guys, but I have to reboot my cable modem two/three/four times a month...

[The AD]

I'm on a cable modem and have experienced very few interruptions in service. Of course, if I sign up for VoIP all of a sudden I will

[scoober]

yeah, its all good, cheap, easy.... except for the fact that you can pretty much guarantee all your calls are recorded into a server cache somewhere.

if that doesn't bug you, go for it.

[The AD]

yeah, its all good, cheap, easy.... except for the fact that you can pretty much guarantee all your calls are recorded into a server cache somewhere.

if that doesn't bug you, go for it.

Yeah, but is a regular phone line or cell phone any more secure?

I guess I'll have to limit my calls regarding my, ahem, waste management business.

[snorkeldeep]

i use skype all the time - but im a tech geek. its awesome - it sounds great and its free.

[splat]

ok, geeks. wtf are you talking about-making calls on your computer?

[TomK]

Splat, doesn't have to be a PC, but definately a high-speed DSL or Broadband access path to the internet.

Although it's possible to use your PC as the access equipment, some companies also provide VoIP phone sets (Cisco and Pingtel for example) and some offer A/D VoIP adapters that allow you to use your existing alalog phonesets (a good bridge to VoIP for multiline business premises). There's two fundimentally different VoIP signalling systems used, H.323 which has been around a while, and the newer SIP protocol that's more forward looking and flexible for during-the-call management. SIP calls usually encrypt the speech samples (a nod to the paranoid), making it harder for interception and decoding.
If you want to look ahead, ask the company which they use. (SIP is the future IMO)

Indy,
Verizon's blockage of number porting is an issue you should bring up with your state utility commision as a complaint. There's nothing in it for them, so they will try to prevent it unless folks complain and the UTC forces them to open up.
This is the same type of anti-competitive behaviour the local phone companies have been doing for decades. They did it with LD in the 70's and 80's, did it with local services in the 90's, and fought it tooth and nail in the 00's with cellphones. Every month they keep you is another month of revenue for them, and it's usually taken UTC and even FCC and lawsuits to get then to change.

If you used PC to PC calling in the past and were not happy, the new VoIP services are much better quality (Better codes and available bandwidth) and more reliable than even 2 years ago.

911 service is a real issue for some locations and services, but is way overblown by the media and is rapidly getting fixed.


As joshbu says, POTs will slowly fade away and be replaced with VoIP, but it's going to take much longer than he thinks. Heck, there are STILL people and places that use rotary dial phonesets in the US. VoIP is great as long as you have access to the internet, but without high=speed net access, POTS is going to be the only game still.

Oh yeah, during a power outage, most VoIP premises are going to be off the air. The POTS system uses it's own seperate power supply that has battery backup.

So, use it like crazy but if the service provider you choose has glitches with 911, I'd keep a bare-bones lifeline service hardline POTS too.

(I'm in the telcom/data com business on the tech side. For VoIP, Skype and Vonage are competitors, but my company serves a different market segment than they do)

[Platinum Pete]

I know many businesses who love VoIP and save tons of money by using it. I don't know anybody using it on a home/personal basis. Supposedly there are cordless or wi-fi versions available, or soon to be available, that will allow you to bring your phone near any 802.11 hotspot and use it free with your own number. I know you can already take some handsets from location to location, just plug in and it auto-identifies you to your network.

In the near future look for your cell phone to be wi-fi/VoIP stylee in addition to it's regular functionality. This will solve the problem of building penetration and divert bandwidth traffc off of the wireless company's network, plus the wireless data applications will kick into high gear. Once WiMax or citywide Wi-Fi (Philly, NYC, SF, PDX) kicks in - oh, man shit gets cool.

I work in the wireless industry on the business sales side.

[The AD]

ok, geeks. wtf are you talking about-making calls on your computer?

Yes, Splat. To cut through all the geek talk, VoIP connects your regular phone to a high speed internet connection rather than a phone line. Other than that it works pretty much the same as a regular phone. At least that's the idea.

[Tuckerman]

I use Packet8 cost $19.95 a month unlimited US and Canada works great.

[cj001f]

Saw a number of people using it in S. America to call Europe/USA from inet cafes. Didn't ask about quality, but it would save a packet.

Anyone used Skypeout? How's it work (quality wise)?

[StormDay]

Anyone used Skypeout? How's it work (quality wise)?

A friend in London is using it and likes it.

[splat]

So would SBC offer this as something PM Gear could tie business lines into?
Last I heard of stuff like this was DialPad.
(Man, am I out of the loop)

[SquawMan]

So would SBC offer this as something PM Gear could tie business lines into?
Last I heard of stuff like this was DialPad.
(Man, am I out of the loop)

http://www.vonage.com


Vonage Raises $200M

May 9, 2005

By Justin Hibbard

In March, Deal Flow told you that privately held broadband phone company Vonage Holdings Corp. was raising $100 million in its fifth round of funding. Turns out the company managed to raise twice that amount. Tomorrow, Vonage will close a $200 million round led by Bain Capital with participation from the company's management and previous investors 3i Group, New Enterprise Associates, Meritech Capital, and Institutional Venture Partners.

That's the largest VC funding on record this year, according to researcher VentureOne. A source says Vonage is valued at approximately $1.1 billion after the financing. (Vonage wouldn't comment on valuation.)

Including the new round, Vonage has raised about $410 million since it was founded in 2001. Just nine months ago, it closed a $105 million round, much of which is still in the bank, says CFO John Rego. Why raise more? "Growth, growth, and more growth," Rego says.

Here's what that growth looks like. Vonage ended last year with 390,000 phone lines, up 400% from 2003. The company currently has more than 650,000 lines and is adding more than 15,000 a week. At that pace, it will have about 1.2 million lines by year-end. Rego says the company expects to have more than 2 million by the end of next year. Considering that Vonage's average monthly revenue per line is about $30, the company could generate about $292 million in revenue this year. (That updates my previous back-of-the-envelope forecast.)

In addition, Vonage has begun a global expansion, having recently introduced its service in the U.K. and Canada. By year-end, it will likely launch its service in an Asian country, too. "Some of the funds will be useful for that," Rego says.

Marketing remains Vonage's largest expense. (You may have seen these TV commercials.) At the current growth rate, the company is spending about $9 million to $12 million a month on average to acquire new customers. Without that expense, the company would be cash-flow positive, if not profitable. But for now, it's plowing all of its free cash flow--plus money from its treasury--into marketing.

There's a method to the madness. Rego says building the largest customer base possible will ultimately lower Vonage's expenses. For example, the more calls it handles, the lower its termination fees (i.e. the cost of connecting Internet calls to the public switched telephone network). Eventually, the cost of acquiring customers could come down as consumers learn about voice-over-Internet-protocol (VOIP) service.

A land-grab for the exploding VOIP market is underway. IDC predicts the number of U.S. residential VOIP subscribers will grow from 3 million this year to 27 million by 2009. Cable and phone companies are determined to saw off a big wedge of that pie. "We haven't seen them play real hardball yet," says Will Stofega, an analyst at IDC.

Comcast rolled out VOIP service in January and aims to have eight million customers in four years. Cablevision ended last year with more than 272,000 VOIP subscribers. Unlike Vonage, big telcos can bundle VOIP with other services and market to their installed customer base, giving them an advantage in marketing.

Then there's Skype, the two-year-old VOIP upstart that claims to have two million users worldwide, leading Morgan Stanley analyst Mary Meeker to call it the "the most rapidly growing product from an acceptance standpoint the world has ever seen." Vonage doesn't consider Skype direct competition since Skype started as a free service that lets Internet users talk only with each other through their computers. But last year, Skype introduced a paid service that lets Internet users call regular phones. Skype claims one million people now use that service. The company spends little on marketing, relying mainly on word of mouth and publicity.

To keep growing, Vonage may have to raise money again before long. I'm putting odds on a 2006 initial public offering. It will be a controversial deal.

[powfreak]

I use both Skype and Webphone. I started with Skype but ran into problems adding credit but i think they've solved that problem now. Webphone is good but i think skype is clearer/better. By far skype to skype (computer to computer) is amazing! Very clear and totally free. It beats the $3US/min i was paying long distance to call home

[Ira]

So, use it like crazy but if the service provider you choose has glitches with 911, I'd keep a bare-bones lifeline service hardline POTS too.

(I'm in the telcom/data com business on the tech side. For VoIP, Skype and Vonage are competitors, but my company serves a different market segment than they do)

I'm also in the Telcom/Data business on the sales and engineering side for commercial clients (we sell another major brand besides Cisco, but we use cicso data gear). Our office uses VoIP WITHIN the office, and I think that is what is more prevalent on the industry side for commercial applications. It reduces cabling cost if you have an office buidling with say 900-1k phones. VoIP just means Voice over Internet Protocol, and does not necessarily have to go over the internet..

I have been using various "VoIP" softwares to call other folks in Europe since college (7years ago) and you could definitely talk for almost free to someone on the other side with the same program. the newer products are a lot more flexible in thier use and who you can call. there are a few things to keep in mind though, before you buy into the 'wonderphones.'

QOS, or Quality Of Service, is a big issue. it is OK if your file takes 5 seconds longer to transmit over the net, but could you imagine if your conversation were interrupted like that. Voice traffic (at least on the equipment we sell) only takes up 33k of bandwidth per call, but those data packets have no priority over the public internet and there is no way to assure priority without paying for dedicated bandwidth (you are then locked into calling one location only, which is often Okay if you are just calling someone at a field office).

the closest thing you can achieve to QOS without having a dedicated link is to set up a VPN (virtual private network) to call back into the office. this works well and I do it often when I travel or visit prospective clients for a demo.

I guess I am trying to say that to get phone-like quality at this time, you need a POTS line. if the call works most of the time and you dont mind calling back later (cell phones a few years ago) then the household VoIP phones are a good deal...

911 is a huge issue. there is no way a 911 operator can get your location off of an IP address. don't kid youself into thinking that you will be safe if you make a 911 call and you are having trouble telling the "contract operator" where you are because you are too hurt to call, or are having an emergency in the middle of a "really good" party...

sorry for blabbering, but it has been cool to see this technology develop and I hope it gets better...

-Ira

[skier666]

Depending on your needs you might want to check out skype http://www.skype.com.

I use skype also to talk to my friends in New Zealand...its free and funny as hell.

[scoober]

Yeah, but is a regular phone line or cell phone any more secure?

I guess I'll have to limit my calls regarding my, ahem, waste management business.

I wouldn't say secure necessarily, but we all take it for granted that our standard phone calls aren't usually being recorded or if they are it is for a good reason and there is usually a warrant behind it.

With VoIP, your calls are basically recorded just like any of your browsed files on a web browser are, and the problem being is that things like the Patriot Act are so loosely written that some agencies may see it fit that they can just start going back through all the recorded calls and search for interesting coversations so to speak.

[joshbu]

The feds weight in on VoIP 911 issues...

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...w080235D40.DTL