{"id":30402,"date":"2011-05-27T18:27:10","date_gmt":"2011-05-27T22:27:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.voipsupply.com\/?p=30402"},"modified":"2016-12-08T16:51:25","modified_gmt":"2016-12-08T21:51:25","slug":"making-the-switch-from-voip-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.voipsupply.com\/blog\/voip-insider\/making-the-switch-from-voip-part-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"Making the Switch…from VoIP? (Part II)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Note:\u00a0 <\/strong>This is the\u00a0final segment of\u00a0a two part article that examines a switch back to traditional phone service from VoIP and other user\u2019s experiences. Part I\u00a0is here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Part I\u00a0was a\u00a0look at reasons users might take a step back from the growing VoIP\u00a0usage and return to a traditional, analog phone system.<\/p>\n

Admittedly, VoIP isn’t for everyone which is why there are still other options but after having read Renai LeMay’s story, “Why I’m Ditching VoIP for the PSTN<\/a>,” I wanted to know if this sort of technological backtracking was a\u00a0trend or an isolated occurrence.<\/p>\n

To get a sense of whether or not\u00a0VoIP service represents a\u00a0burger grilled to perfection\u00a0for some or\u00a0is still undercooked for others (Happy Memorial Day Weekend everyone!),\u00a0I sought the opinions of actual VoIP users.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Didn’t Like it and Switched Back?<\/h2>\n

As I inquired about peoples experiences I\u00a0looked for end users who switched to a\u00a0VoIP phone service and then switched back to a traditional phone service because of issues with reliability, call quality, or problems with the hardware or software.<\/p>\n

At the very least I\u00a0was interested in what people thought\u00a0were the pros and cons of both services.\u00a0 Here’s what they had to say.<\/p>\n

VoIP Behind the Scenes<\/h2>\n

Eric Loyd is\u00a0President and CTO of Bitnetix Incorporated<\/a> a small technology consulting company just down the thruway from us in Rochester, NY that specializes in business phone systems, including VoIP.\u00a0 He explained to me that:<\/p>\n

Most people don’t realize that VoIP is used behind the scenes in almost every phone call. You no longer have copper wires connecting the world – they connect end points to switches, which tunnel across MPLS and ATM networks to put your phone traffic into an internet-like cloud (and sometime, the internet itself). It’s just done at a level that’s a few layers above the end user, so you never know it’s there.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In addition to VoIP’s participation\u00a0behind the scenes unbeknownst to the average consumer, Loyd adds that Bitnetix Inc. helps “convert companies to VOIP all the time and have yet to have one go back to copper.”<\/p>\n

Never Looking Back<\/h2>\n

In that vein of Bitnetix’s\u00a0satisfied customers, Mike Arman who’s\u00a0operating two small business out of Florida and author of “Talk For Cheap!<\/a>,” adds that he is “never ever, ever, going back”\u00a0to AT&T’s copper lines\u00a0after switching to VoIP service.<\/p>\n

Arman reports that he’s enjoying\u00a0 a threefold decrease in his telecommunication costs\u00a0with VoIP.\u00a0 A $350\/month bill for three phone lines, fax, and email is now down to $105\/month with “more features, better service, better customer care.”<\/p>\n

Regarding\u00a0questionable VoIP call quality and reliability Arman adds an interesting point that “Cell phones have lowered<\/em> quality expectations in telecomm services.”<\/p>\n

Arman admits that copper lines offer the best call quality but\u00a0the prevalence and acceptance of cell phone call quality, to him, means that “an occasional dropout or cutoff on a VOIP line is not considered worrisome or exceptional.”<\/p>\n

Never Looking Back Part II<\/h2>\n

Yes, “Never Looking Back Part II.”\u00a0 If you’re thinking that I’m really laying it on thick in support of VoIP well, you’re right!\u00a0 No, no, not entirely.\u00a0 There’s more to this exploration than that.<\/p>\n

Klaus Sonnenleiter\u00a0with\u00a0PrintedArt<\/strong>,\u00a0an eCommerce site for selling\u00a0photography\u00a0printed on unique display formats,\u00a0uses VoIP at his business and says he wouldn’t switch back but, for the record\u00a0he\u00a0notes a few disclaimers:<\/p>\n

We are using VoIP only at PrintedArt and I would never switch back. However, I do have enough nightmare stories to contribute between incompatible hardware, software being hard to configure (we are using Asterisk with Trixbox now and it works well, before we had other Asterisk frontends that were far harder to navigate), and particularly providers coming up with new things to watch out for all the time, it’s certainly a challenge to keep a VoIP service up and running. On balance, however, it is far better than an old style POTS phone, especially when it comes to audio quality and cost.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

See, that’s fair, right?\u00a0 PrintedArt likes VoIP but they had some problems in the past.\u00a0\u00a0Not uncommon.<\/p>\n

Unreliable Faxing<\/h2>\n

VoIP Insider has broached the topic of VoIP faxing before with “Introduction to Fax over IP with FaxxBochs<\/a>” and “Faxing is Alive and Well<\/a>.”\u00a0 The consensus?\u00a0 It’s not always easy but it’s not impossible either.<\/p>\n

Yuriy Krivenko at Seasonal Staffing Solutions<\/a> shares\u00a0his company’s experience when they switched to VoIP in 2008 to save on costs:<\/p>\n

The prices seemed so attractive. But, we later found out that we could not rely on the service to send or receive faxes. This was a disaster, and we had to get back to traditional service.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There are certainly fax over IP myths\u00a0to combat but sometimes\u00a0connection issues are too frustrating for users to deal with.<\/p>\n

‘A’ for Effort<\/h2>\n

Lastly, I was told several stories that VoIP was\u00a0a great idea but\u00a0lacking in practical application.\u00a0 Here’s a couple stories that give VoIP an ‘A’ for effort.<\/p>\n

Michael Zipursky of Business Consulting Buzz<\/a>, a leading blog for consultants, expressed his initial attraction to VoIP that many people have — Price and features.\u00a0 Zipursky notes that\u00a0he soon noticed “that the call quality wasnt as good as a standard landline,”\u00a0changing service was a hassle, and he\u00a0moved back to a landline.\u00a0Recently he’s been using VoIP from through his internet\u00a0cable connection\u00a0and that lately it’s “been working very well for one of our offices.”<\/p>\n

Sandra Holtzman, President of Holtzman Communications<\/a>, a marketing and advertising company, has similar sentiments as she “loved the concept of VOIP but it didn’t work for\u00a0[her] in practice.”<\/p>\n

Holtzman was attracted to VoIP for\u00a0lower prices and better service than she’d been\u00a0getting from Verizon.\u00a0\u00a0But with Vonage, dropped calls at highly inopportune times (calls with clients) became too much to\u00a0bear along with increasing static on the line.\u00a0 “Enough already. I went back to the devil I know, ” states Holtzman about her return to a Verizon landline.\u00a0 Her VoIP experience was entirely bad\u00a0but she’s still looking ahead to the future beyond VoIP:<\/p>\n

The one great thing about Vonage, aside from pricing, better customer service and tech support than Verizon, was that I would get emails on my Blackberry telling me I had a message and who the caller was. This was great when I was out and about since I never had to call in for messages.<\/p>\n

I understand that there\u2019s a new technology afoot designed to replace VOIP. I can\u2019t wait!!!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

VoIP Scorecard<\/h2>\n

VoIP versus Landline\u00a0 – Is there a clear cut winner?<\/p>\n

This\u00a0small sample size\u00a0represents\u00a0the most commonly shared opinions of, and experiences with VoIP.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In other words, it’s still a mixed bag.<\/p>\n

VoIP technology is still emerging\u00a0to an extent and\u00a0continually being perfected.\u00a0\u00a0It’s not only\u00a0the future of telecommunications\u00a0but as Loyd pointed out\u00a0it’s already\u00a0being “used behind the scenes in almost every phone call.”<\/p>\n

VoIP’s been around a for a little while, it’s still growing, and you’ve already been using it whether you wanted to or not.\u00a0 It may not be the technology of choice for everyone today but it will be tomorrow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Note:\u00a0 This is the\u00a0final segment of\u00a0a two part article that examines a switch back to traditional phone service from VoIP and other user\u2019s experiences. Part I\u00a0is here. Part I\u00a0was a\u00a0look at reasons users might take a step back from the growing VoIP\u00a0usage and return to a traditional, analog phone system. Admittedly, VoIP isn’t for everyone […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6283],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cloud-based-voip-service"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.voipsupply.com\/blog\/voip-insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.voipsupply.com\/blog\/voip-insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.voipsupply.com\/blog\/voip-insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.voipsupply.com\/blog\/voip-insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.voipsupply.com\/blog\/voip-insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30402"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.voipsupply.com\/blog\/voip-insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30402\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":195143,"href":"https:\/\/www.voipsupply.com\/blog\/voip-insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30402\/revisions\/195143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.voipsupply.com\/blog\/voip-insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.voipsupply.com\/blog\/voip-insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.voipsupply.com\/blog\/voip-insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}