Elaine

VOIP is another one of those computer acronyms that stands for Voice Over Internet Protcol. It is a technology that is growing very quickly, and the primary reason for that is that it is helping both residential customers and business customers to save money.

You really do not need to know how VOIP works to use it, but there are some very fundamental things you need to understand. First of all, if you want to use a VOIP service for your home or business, the VOIP service typically assumes that you already have a stable and reliable highspeed Internet connection. The highspeed Internet connection is REQUIRED for VOIP service, but the VOIP service itself does not include the highspeed Internet.

For home use, that might be cable Internet or it might be residential DSL. But whichever of those it is, note the keywords I used above: stable and reliable. Many residential highspeed Internet connections are neither reliable nor are they stable. If that is the case with your highspeed Internet connection, then you have two choices: (1) get a different highspeed Internet service that DOES provide a stable and reliable connection, or (2) stop shopping for VOIP services, because it will not work well with an unstable and unreliable highspeed Internet connection.

In fact, studies have shown that in more than 95% of the cases where customers have called to complain about the quality of their VOIP services, the problem has been with the highspeed Internet connection, and NOT with the VOIP service.

The reason for this is that VOIP makes and receives phone calls using your highspeed Internet connection. Obviously, if that connection is neither reliable nor stable, your VOIP service and voice quality on that call is going to suffer.

What if your highspeed Internet connection is satellite? A satellite highspeed Internet connection is not recommended for good VOIP service. Most satellite services have a monthly bandwidth limitation, and if you do much calling at all, you will likely exceed that monthly limitation with VOIP quite quickly. But even if you do not do much calling, the lag time to go to the satellite and back, which is referred to as the latency time, is going to make VOIP very difficult, and you will not be happy with it.

Remember I talked about the "reliable" aspect of your highspeed Internet connection? For years and years, you have grown accustomed to hearing a dial tone when you picked up the phone to make a call, and that has been extremely reliable. But if your highspeed Internet connection goes down, so does your ability to make or receive phone calls.

If you do have a reliable and stable highspeed Internet connection, there is no reason not to consider installing VOIP immediately. You can even cancel your existing phone line with the phone company after you get VOIP installed, if you want to. That phone line with the phone company is probably costing you about $25 per month, and that is just for dial tone and maybe local calls, but certainly no extra features like caller ID and clearly no long distance calling.

By comparison, most VOIP service plans allow you to make unlimited amounts of local and long distance calls within the continental US, and some also include Canada and even Puerto Rico. They also typically include extra features at no additional cost, such as voice mail, caller ID, calling waiting, and more. And all that still costs around $25 per month, the same as you were paying for just dial tone with the phone company!

The economics of it are there, and you are probably going to have highspeed Internet anyway, so it's time to check out the possibilities and start talking without worrying about the cost of calling your sister in Seattle and your mother in Denver!

To get more information about Residential DSL and Cable Services as well as finding more information about VOIP Services please visit our web site at http://www.voipinsideinfo.com