VOIP

VoIP Disadvantages
VoIP disadvantages are few. The two major VoIP disadvantages are e911 service and VoIP cell phone replacements. Emergency 911 service is currently the most problematic of the VoIP disadvantages in that not all providers offer e911 service as a standard. In addition, with some VoIP service providers, after hours emergency 911 calls may not be routed to the correct locale of the user making the call.
Many consumers see this as the major disadvantage VoIP has in relation to current residential landlines. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has stepped in, however, ruling that all voice providers (landlines, cell and VoIP) must provide standard e911 service by September 2005. Some in the industry believe that this timeframe is much too short in order to achieve industry compliance since many VoIP vendors are relying on the local phone companies to open up their e911 services to them in a timely manner.

This FCC mandate, however, will be a boon to the VoIP marketplace since once standard and consistent VoIP e911 service can be established, then many more consumers will jump on the VoIP bandwagon and no longer see VoIP as having a disadvantage in relation to their residential local and long distance phone companies.

In fact, because of the relatively low cost of VoIP in relation to the traditional phone company offerings, many consumers will do away completely with their landlines and make the conversion to VoIP, which not only will offer the same services as the Baby Bells, but in many cases additional features not offered by the Baby Bells.
The second of the VoIP disadvantages is that having VoIP phones and VoIP phone service will at no time in the near future replace cell phone service. This is because currently wireless VoIP, or wVoIP, is tied to WiFi hotspots of which there are relatively few and will a small reach than with cell phones that use a network of microwave towers with much longer reach in order to provide comprehensive and consistent geographical coverage.
It must be noted, however, that many cell phone companies have jumped on the VoIP bandwagon by offering a hybrid cell phone that will use VoIP and Wifi when they are near a hotspot area in order to offer cheaper rates and when out of range use the traditional cell microwave coverage to insure that calls are not dropped.


One other notable disadvantage for VoIP does exist and this is a power outage which brings the Internet connection down. Many companies, though have already implemented backup power sources with their offerings so this disadvantage has all but faded away.
As stated earlier, the VoIP disadvantages are few. After all the phone companies conform to the FCC mandate to offer comprehensive and standard emergency 911 service to everyone, then the VoIP disadvantages will be even fewer. By the end of 2005 VoIP will be coming of age and coming on strong and a new revolution in the telecom industry will have its feet planted firmly inside consumers' homes.