True VoIP Providers vs. Cable Digital Phone Service
A Brief History of VoIP Service and VoIP Providers
Internet phone service made it's first public debut in 1995 by a
company called Vocaltec. By using internet phone software, registered
users could make phone calls via their computer using an internet
connection. The technology of converting and sending analog sound
over a digital network like the internet was still in it's infancy, and
there were so many issues with the poor quality signal that VoIP
disappeared from the public eye for several years.
During the nine years between the first public appearance of terrible
internet phone service and the re-introduction of VoIP en-masse in 2004, a
lot of technological advances were made. These improvements in hardware,
software and in the protocols (standards) that have made VoIP the
viable, reliable telecommunications alternative that it is today were due
in large part to the dedication and considerable investment of a few
internet phone service "pioneers" that we consider the true VoIP
providers.
True VoIP Providers
Companies like VoIP.com,
Packet8, Vonage, and
Lingo Internet Phone Service
are some of the best true VoIP providers. All have been around for
several years and all specialize in and are dedicated to providing one
type of service - VoIP.
- VoIP.com
has been around since 2006 and is an up and coming newcomer in the VoIP
industry. VoIP.com has it's own in-house development staff and has
some very innovative and cutting-edge projects under way. VoIP.com
offers two options for unlimited VoIP service. The most economical
plan is their annual unlimited plan ($199 a year), which is paid in
advance. The monthly unlimited plan is only $19.95 a month.
VoIP.com offers perhaps the lowest international calling rates you will
find, and also includes more free features than any other VoIP provider.
VoIP.com provides residential subscribers with a free SoftPhone, which
allows users to take their VoIP service with them when traveling.
-
Packet8 has
been in the broadband phone service business since 1987 and is one of
the true pioneers offering VoIP internet service directly to the public.
Many other VoIP companies are pioneers in the industry, but don't
directly sell the service to residential consumers, so we don't discuss
them here. Packet8 has provided a lot of research and
development into their VoIP systems and even has their own telephone
systems and videophones manufactured to their specifications.
- Vonage
has been around since 2001 and signed up their first residential
VoIP subscriber in 2002. That subscriber is still using Vonage
VoIP service today. Vonage has been instrumental in the
development of marketing and delivery of VoIP for home users. If
not for Vonage's strong advertising and marketing power, VoIP would not
be as well known and as well received as it is today. Vonage gets
the credit for teaching the public about VoIP, and for delivering
quality service.
cable digital phone service - how it came to be...
With the start of the VoIP internet phone service "boom" in 2005,
millions of people worldwide (realizing the great quality and
tremendous cost savings associated with VoIP) started cancelling their
land line service in favor of VoIP. That trend has continued, and
escalated greatly, to this day. As the large, slow telephone
companies failed to see the significance of VoIP as a true competitor and
began losing customers at an alarming rate, they quickly began reducing
the price of long distance and started offering an "unlimited" long
distance calling plan at a cheap rate in order to keep customers (their
rate is still much higher than VoIP).
While phone companies struggled to keep customers, money-hungry cable
companies saw an opportunity to take some of the phone companies customers
too. Cable television providers started offering unlimited local and
long distance calling - branding it in cable company marketing terms as
"digital phone service". This marketing tactic worked, as consumers
who don't use internet and/or don't understand that there are other
options took cable providers up on their convenient offering of unlimited
"digital phone service". Now the phone companies are trying to get a
piece of the cable television market - but that's another story....
Anyway, the point of all this is to explain how and where cable
companies got the technology to offer "digital phone service" - any
guesses? They are not VoIP providers and do not specialize in VoIP
technology or telephone technology for that matter, so where does digital
phone service come from? If you guessed - true VoIP providers, you
are right! Here's what's happening with cable television phone
service:
voip re-branded as expensive "digital phone service"
Cable companies (who have a monopoly on residential broadband internet
service in most locales) purchase VoIP service from true VoIP providers at
a wholesale rate and pass it on to us consumers at an inflated price.
"Digital Phone Service" is nothing new or special, it is the same VoIP
internet phone service that is offered (at nearly half the cost) by VoIP
providers like Vonage,
VoIP.com
Packet8,
Opex, Net2Phone, WebPhone,
etc.... Net2Phone even has several web pages dedicated to the
selling of VoIP to cable TV providers.
Below is an excerpt from Net2Phone's Cable Telephony page:
"Net2Phone offers cable operators the ability to add full-featured
residential telephony service to their existing service offerings faster
and with less expense than developing their own service. With the addition
of telephony service, cable operators can offer their subscribers a
“triple play” bundle of video, data and voice service. Cable operators are
encouraged to use their own brand for telephony service, deliver a single
bill and provide direct customer support to their subscribers".
Cable company "Digital Phone Service" is just re-packed, re-labeled,
expensive VoIP service.
For the greatest cost savings and highest quality internet telephone
service, our recommendation is to subscribe with a true VoIP provider.
VoIP is so simple to install, and the best VoIP providers (like those
mentioned on this website) all offer superior technical support and
outstanding customer service. There is no need to pay twice the cost
for VoIP by getting "digital phone service" through your cable provider.
There is no need for us consumers to help cable companies monopolize the
telephone service industry either. Isn't TV enough???
|
|
Best VoIP Providers for Home and Business |
