After looking at the VOIP forums yesterday I decided to take a better look at VOIP. It has some great potential if you want to save money on phone calls.

I started out with Skype, for the simple reason that it’s the one I keep hearing about. The outbound service is currently offering free calling within the United States and Canada until the end of 2006. This is obviously a great savings over paying for local toll and long distance calls.

You can also order a phone number to receive inbound calls. SkypeIn is still in beta, so they don’t promise perfect service through it yet. However, you do also get voicemail service with SkypeIn.
One disadvantage to Skype is that the do not support emergency service.

I also looked at Verizon VoiceWing. This one is intended more to replace your regular phone, and even offers either Basic 911 or Enhanced 911 service, depending on your area. It offers lots of features to make your VOIP calling pleasant. Starting at $24.95 a month, you need to know if you will save enough for this service to be worth the money to you. If you have lots of family far enough away that you pay to call them, it very well could be.

As I noted yesterday, some people claim to occasionally have trouble with their ISP about using VOIP. It uses quite a bit of bandwidth, and so it is a little hard on the ISPs. My own feeling on that matter is that if the ISP doesn’t want you to use the bandwidth, they need to go back to metering it. If they aren’t selling you a given amount of bandwidth, they don’t have the right to complain if you use more than average. I’m also a firm supporter of Net Neutrality. I won’t go into that here, but it does matter greatly to VOIP as well as to my own business.

Which one is right for you really depends on what you need it for. It’s a great option for saving on your phone bill when you already have high speed internet. But it won’t be for everyone.

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