V O I P Phone System: Advantages And Disadvantages

By: Jim Brown

Over the years, communications has drastically evolved with the help of computer electronics. Communicating across the world has been fairly easy for anybody who is familiar with computers and for most of them it's for free.

One major contributing factor for this evolution is the development and advancement of the VOIP telephony system. It has crossed international communication with a zip by eliminating expensive overseas call. Since the platform for this technological wonder is internet based, the caller and the recipient only need a DSL connection which is fairly common among businesses and households. Adapting to this communication system is quick since applications come for free or pre installed with other software.

Though this technology may bring wonders to the way the world communicates this doesn't mean it doesn't have its share of flawless. Here are the pros and cons of using VOIP.

Advantages:

- Mostly the service is free but dependent on the speed of the ISP connection.

- The data being used is interpreted as data being sent over the network just like as it is in an e-mail so typical internet structure is only needed.

- The bandwidth consumption is just half of what a regular analog telephone uses to connect to other telephones.

Disadvantages:

- Mainly, VOIP is powered by electricity. Unlike telephones, their cables have just enough current to power the components inside the telephone and make a phone call possible even if there is no power.

- Most electronic household devices are all linked to the telephone line. If the house has a security system that is DTMF coded, it is most likely telephone line dependent. Turning on and off the alarm or configuring a new setting with this security system can be done remotely via analog telephone. As of now VOIP is not capable of tapping their system to these security features.

- The VOIP line is dependent on the ISP's availability. If the ISP suffers downtime which is common among internet connections so does the VOIP phone system.

- If the ISP experience data lag, the VOIP user might also experience packet data loss which can be garbage audio over the other party.

- Another issue facing VOIP users is when the computer or the processor max out on its limits to process data and you are on an important phone call, it normally shuts down or hangs up, so that's one business deal going down the drain.

- A long shot problem VOIP might be facing since it is computer component based is the virus. Though there haven't been reports of viruses infecting VOIPs or infected packets used in VOIP but it's a possibility in the near future.

As of now VOIP has always been paired off with the traditional telephone since its platform is not that stable as the analog telephony. It can be of great advantage if used as a supplement to an existing analog telephone line but not as a main telephone.

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