Close to joining the VoIP revolution for our home phone...
Category Everything Else
One of the benefits to reviewing books is that I end up with exposure to a lot of different technologies that I might otherwise ignore. One of those exposures has been to Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, phone service. Basically, it's running your phone service over your internet connection instead of over the traditional phone system. Skype is the freebie example of this, and Vonage brought the concept home to ordinary consumers. Now it seems that every broadband provider is more than willing to take your money in this area.
For me, I'm a Comcast subscriber for both analog cable and high-speed internet. I've been real happy with the results, so I don't have a problem with service levels. My wife saw an ad for switching to digital voice with Comcast for $29.95 a month for the first three months ($39.95 after that). I've sort of ignored our personal phone situation, since our Qwest bill doesn't run much more than $45 a month. Most of our long distance is done via cell phone, so our long distance charges are negligible. But now Ian has a girlfriend... in New York... 3000+ miles away...
And you don't want to know what the last cell phone bill was...
I finally convinced him to load up Skype to talk with her, but this was at the same time as my/his old laptop died. So now he's back to weekend talks and IM'ing from various computers around the house. If I get Comcast digital voice, the problem is solved. I talked with a friend from hockey last night about it. He switched to Comcast voice awhile back, and has nothing but good things to say about it.
So... I may not be a bleeding edge adopter of new technology, but I know enough to determine when it will be stable enough to benefit me personally. And I think that VoIP just hit that point...
One of the benefits to reviewing books is that I end up with exposure to a lot of different technologies that I might otherwise ignore. One of those exposures has been to Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, phone service. Basically, it's running your phone service over your internet connection instead of over the traditional phone system. Skype is the freebie example of this, and Vonage brought the concept home to ordinary consumers. Now it seems that every broadband provider is more than willing to take your money in this area.
For me, I'm a Comcast subscriber for both analog cable and high-speed internet. I've been real happy with the results, so I don't have a problem with service levels. My wife saw an ad for switching to digital voice with Comcast for $29.95 a month for the first three months ($39.95 after that). I've sort of ignored our personal phone situation, since our Qwest bill doesn't run much more than $45 a month. Most of our long distance is done via cell phone, so our long distance charges are negligible. But now Ian has a girlfriend... in New York... 3000+ miles away...
And you don't want to know what the last cell phone bill was...
I finally convinced him to load up Skype to talk with her, but this was at the same time as my/his old laptop died. So now he's back to weekend talks and IM'ing from various computers around the house. If I get Comcast digital voice, the problem is solved. I talked with a friend from hockey last night about it. He switched to Comcast voice awhile back, and has nothing but good things to say about it.
So... I may not be a bleeding edge adopter of new technology, but I know enough to determine when it will be stable enough to benefit me personally. And I think that VoIP just hit that point...
| Permalink |
Comments
Posted by Alan Young At 10:08:28 On 13/02/2006 | - Website - |