There are several different grades of Internet service. They range from
aDSL, cable modems, and satellite. They offer NO guarantee of up time, hence
the low cost. sDSL, T-1, and other fractional T services offer guaranteed up
time, typically 99.99 percent. Unless you're dependant on running your
business out of your home, typically, you choose the cheapest service you
can find. Where a business, typically, chooses the higher dependability of
services.
Of course nothing, including anything you own electronic, is guaranteed to
work all the time.
It's knowing when it doesn't that makes the Internet a better choice for
routing alarm signals, and either radio back-up, or cellular back-up, that
further ensures communication.
People who choose to cancel land lines, and place a VoIP service as their
only form of communication to the outside world, aren't very smart. There
isn't a single business in the US that operates with that kind of mentality.
VoIP is a product designed to cut communication costs, not replace them. The
reliability just isn't there yet, residentially.


"Percival P. Cassidy" wrote in message
news
And then there is the question of reliability of the Internet service on
which VoIP depends. When we lived in NY, our phone service
(Nynex/BA/Verizon) was more reliable than our Internet service
(CableVision/Optimum Online), and in the two years we've been in W.
Michigan our phone service (SBC) has been more reliable than our
Internet service (Charter). In both places interruption to Internet
service has been rare (but once as long as 36 hrs in NY), but I wouldn't
want to have to depend on my ISP for phone service.

Perce


On 09/11/05 06:15 am tossed the following
ingredients into the ever-growing pot of cybersoup:

Most people who are aware of VOIP think that it's cheap primarily
because of some great digital technological breakthrough. They don't
realize that virtually all voice traffic has been digital for a very
long time. In the case of existing phone lines, the A/D was done at
the switch at the local phone company. From there on through the
network it was all handled digitally, running through exactly the same
kind of fiber optic lines and other high speed digital lines as the
internet, until it was converted back to analog at the far end. The
big difference was that the phone system guarantees that every digital
sample arrives at the other end at precise intervals that correspond to
the 8khz sampling rate. With VOIP, the packets can be routed all over
the place, with no guarantee that they will get there at the right
time. That's a big difference in quality of service.

Most people who went to VOIP did not do it to avoid the $20 monthly
local phone service fee. The did it because they had high toll call
bills, with a lot of that likely being over seas calls. So what they
were avoiding was the regulated tariff structure, both domestic and
international, at the the expense of reliability. Along the way, many
found out that there are in fact some serious problems, like the 911
issue and call quality. And also, since we're on the subject of call
monitoring, do the major monitoring services work with VOIP? I know as
of a couple years ago, they had a policy of not supporting it. The
domestic long distance cost has dropped sharply over the last few
years, with most providers now offering some form of bulk or unlimited
calling packages at more reasonable rates, so the incentive to switch
keeps dropping.

And today statements like:

"Those of us who actually use VoIP every day might tend to
disagree with you. I've had the service for over a year. At
first there were major quality and reliability issues so I only
used it as an overflow for my POTS lines. "

hardly bring a ringing endorsement. If there were major quality and
reliability issues that recently, I'll just stick with Verizon.