Can You Really Get Phone Service for $20 a Year?
Recent TV ads offer what appears to be a phone service for $20 a year, using a device I will call a "V-plug". A V-plug is one implementation of a technology/standard called Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP). Basically, a VoIP system converts normal telephone electrical signals into data that can be transmitted over the Internet. At the receiving end, the data is reconverted to rings, dial tones, busy-signals, or audio, as appropriate.
To use a V-plug, you have to have a conventional telephone set, and a computer, and a high-speed Internet connection. You plug your conventional phone set into the V-plug, plug the V-plug into a USB port on your computer, and connect your computer to the high-speed Internet connection. In theory, your phone seems to work more or less like it does when connected to an ordinary land line.
If you already have a computer and high-speed Internet connection, they are a sunk cost, so the V-plug does what it does for $20 a year, which is less than you are currently paying for even the most basic land-line services.
It's a good story, as far as it goes. But there are several important differences between V-plug and conventional land-line telephone service, all involving limitations of the Internet:
1. If you have to subscribe to a high-speed Internet connection solely to use a V-plug, your "inexpensive" phone connection would cost much as a high-speed Internet connection -- about $250/year, which by itself about as much as your basic land-line service.
2. Unlike conventional land-line phone service, the Internet is not required to transfer information at any particular speed or within a given time, and it is as only as fast as its slowest element at any given time. The Internet is not even required to transmit information in the order in which that information was placed on the Internet. So if you say over a V-plug connection, "Hi, this is Fred Wiltedfern", it may be delivered to the receiving end as, "Wiltedfern is Hi Fred this". The receiver of any data that has come over the Internet has to reassemble the pieces in the right order. Because the reassembly takes time, a V-plug phone session may stop, or "sound jittery", or exhibit noticeable pauses. Most V-plug companies try to minimize this kind of behavior, but the problem continues to be more common on VoIP than on conventional land-line services.
3. Most conventional land-line phone service suppliers can provide operating power to the most basic phone sets (ones that do not require a connection to an electrical power outlet) in the event of a power outage, and those "basic" phones will continue to work during the outage. The Internet is not required to have electrical power backup, and when there is a power outage, it can easily render a V-plug connection useless.
4. The Internet is not required to support 911 emergency calls in the way that conventional land-line telephone companies are required to do. Some VoIP suppliers provide 911 support for an extra fee, or, as is the case with the V-plug, provide it voluntarily (meaning they can interrupt 911 service without notice and without penalty). Under federal law, a company that sells V-plug services is required to recommend to its customers in writing that the customer should have a means other than the V-plug to contact 911. In most locations, that alternative would be conventional land-line or cell-phone service.
5. All conventional land-line or cell-phone service providers by law are required provide some level of maintenance support for their system. The Internet is not required to provide such support. If something "breaks" in the Internet, you are on your own.
6. Currently, you cannot have a telephone number you have already been assigned by a land-line, or cell-phone, service provider assigned to your V-plug connection. You will need a new number for the V-plug. The industry is working to remove this limitation "soon".
7. The Internet is a relatively attractive target for "hackers", much more so than a conventional land line is. As a result, your privacy on a V-plug connection cannot be ensured at even the (rather low) level it is on a conventional phone line.
8. High-speed Internet isn't available everywhere, especially in rural areas.
In short, a V-plug phone connection may make sense as a secondary phone service, but it isn't, at least now, equivalent in some important ways a conventional land-line telephone. Before you buy, carefully read the service agreement of any V-plug service provider you are considering to determine whether it meets your needs.
For further information, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice-over-IP.
To use a V-plug, you have to have a conventional telephone set, and a computer, and a high-speed Internet connection. You plug your conventional phone set into the V-plug, plug the V-plug into a USB port on your computer, and connect your computer to the high-speed Internet connection. In theory, your phone seems to work more or less like it does when connected to an ordinary land line.
If you already have a computer and high-speed Internet connection, they are a sunk cost, so the V-plug does what it does for $20 a year, which is less than you are currently paying for even the most basic land-line services.
It's a good story, as far as it goes. But there are several important differences between V-plug and conventional land-line telephone service, all involving limitations of the Internet:
1. If you have to subscribe to a high-speed Internet connection solely to use a V-plug, your "inexpensive" phone connection would cost much as a high-speed Internet connection -- about $250/year, which by itself about as much as your basic land-line service.
2. Unlike conventional land-line phone service, the Internet is not required to transfer information at any particular speed or within a given time, and it is as only as fast as its slowest element at any given time. The Internet is not even required to transmit information in the order in which that information was placed on the Internet. So if you say over a V-plug connection, "Hi, this is Fred Wiltedfern", it may be delivered to the receiving end as, "Wiltedfern is Hi Fred this". The receiver of any data that has come over the Internet has to reassemble the pieces in the right order. Because the reassembly takes time, a V-plug phone session may stop, or "sound jittery", or exhibit noticeable pauses. Most V-plug companies try to minimize this kind of behavior, but the problem continues to be more common on VoIP than on conventional land-line services.
3. Most conventional land-line phone service suppliers can provide operating power to the most basic phone sets (ones that do not require a connection to an electrical power outlet) in the event of a power outage, and those "basic" phones will continue to work during the outage. The Internet is not required to have electrical power backup, and when there is a power outage, it can easily render a V-plug connection useless.
4. The Internet is not required to support 911 emergency calls in the way that conventional land-line telephone companies are required to do. Some VoIP suppliers provide 911 support for an extra fee, or, as is the case with the V-plug, provide it voluntarily (meaning they can interrupt 911 service without notice and without penalty). Under federal law, a company that sells V-plug services is required to recommend to its customers in writing that the customer should have a means other than the V-plug to contact 911. In most locations, that alternative would be conventional land-line or cell-phone service.
5. All conventional land-line or cell-phone service providers by law are required provide some level of maintenance support for their system. The Internet is not required to provide such support. If something "breaks" in the Internet, you are on your own.
6. Currently, you cannot have a telephone number you have already been assigned by a land-line, or cell-phone, service provider assigned to your V-plug connection. You will need a new number for the V-plug. The industry is working to remove this limitation "soon".
7. The Internet is a relatively attractive target for "hackers", much more so than a conventional land line is. As a result, your privacy on a V-plug connection cannot be ensured at even the (rather low) level it is on a conventional phone line.
8. High-speed Internet isn't available everywhere, especially in rural areas.
In short, a V-plug phone connection may make sense as a secondary phone service, but it isn't, at least now, equivalent in some important ways a conventional land-line telephone. Before you buy, carefully read the service agreement of any V-plug service provider you are considering to determine whether it meets your needs.
For further information, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice-over-IP.
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