rradina
join:2000-08-08
Chesterfield, MO
| The real issue...
said by the referenced story:
With the high cost of traditional phone service, many people are turning to lower-cost Internet phone service, but one local mom said she believes a cheaper phone service cost her her baby's life.
Isn't this the real issue? If traditional phone services weren't so ridiculously overpriced, there would be no market for VOIP. |
|
mglunt
join:2001-09-10
Fredericksburg, VA
 ·Verizon FIOS
1 edit | VoIP will always be cheaper because they don't need to maintain the lines to everyone's house. People will always be tempted to go with VoIP because of that.
For my house, I have a POTS line, and our Cell phones can be used for making long distance calls. VoIP needs to be as good as POTS regarding 911 before I switch. Even then, I don't like the idea of relying on a nonessential service like HSI for something essential like 911. Not to mention the fact that it is a lot easier to teach a child how to push 9-1-1 on a phone than it is teaching him how to push 9-1-1 and recite an address even if the call is routed properly.
The cost savings is NOWHERE near worth the risk. Vonage is what $25 a month? I am paying around $35 for a Verizon line with the ability to dial long distance. Without the long distance, it is probably less. Saving up to $10 at the expense of reliable 911 service? That's a bargain? I don't think so. |
|
rradina
join:2000-08-08
Chesterfield, MO
| Does the $35/month price include all the Vonage features? (three way calling, call forwarding, caller ID, call waiting, call waiting caller id, voice mail, ring two numbers at once, and more?)
I live ~20 miles from the population center of the STL metro area and after fees, taxes and other bend-me-over extended area service fees, a basic line that can call metro numbers was ~$50 w/no long distance and no features. Add call waiting and it was ~$60/month.
I disagree that traditional phone services cannot offer cheaper service. If they sell DSL on the same line, they already pay for the loop. The phone service over that same pair should then not be any more than adding VOIP to that same pair.
If I added Vonage to the cost of my HSI, it would be the same price as POTS but I don't just use my HSI for phone service. With Vonage + HSI being equivalent to what I used to pay for POTS w/Caller ID and no long distance, I get free long distance and free HSI or free long distance and free phone service. Regardless of how you add it, I'm getting something free and that difference is far more than $10.
My wife and I both have cell phones and Vonage is the "hard wired" circuit in our house. I have no worry that one of these avenues will work in the event of an actual emergency. There's a bigger risk that I will get killed during the morning commute than lose a life to Vonage 911.
Could it be better? Absolutely. Should Vonage try to offer real 911 service if it doesn't represent a prohibitive burden to their cost structure? Absolutely. Should a suit in Washington be able to demand compliance? Absolutely not. |
|
