VoIP quality

[trlists at clayst.com]

On 21 May 2005 Doug Sweetser wrote:

> Her current reservation is that she want to hear from someone else
> who has this service and is satisfied with the quality of calls.  I
> can understand how the baby bells all want us to worry about this new
> technology.  If anyone here has the service, any reviews would be
> appreciated. 

Well I can't speak quite directly to this but I do have a few friends 
who have VoIP and the quality is uniformly ... mediocre.  At best.  
Specifically, lots of garbled conversations and lots of short drop-
outs.  However, I don't know what providers they use nor how much the 
quality depends on the provider.

Another issue with eliminating the phone line is 911 service.  As I 
understand it the VoIP folks are under no obligation to provide it and 
sometimes charge extra for it.  Plus your 911 access is then dependent 
on a broadband provider's network, which in my experience is 
dramatically less reliable than regular phone service (though perhaps 
still reliable enough).

--
Tom