A couple of factors are hearding me toward the prospect of dropping traditional phone service in favor of Voice over IP. Not least of which is the lees money I put in Qwest's deep pockets, the better I sleep at night. A close second, however is the higher level of control I will have over another piece of my home's total data and communication solution.
The money I save after dropping the PSTS conection will be partially taken up by the added expense of a faster DSL connection and of cource the VOIP providers contract.
Viatalk will likely be the provider I go with, as a co-worker has had good experience with them and the feature/price ratio is attractive.
And oh Joy, the DSL speed options have jumped up for my area. 7MB as well as 12 MB are now avalible in addition to the 1.5 I have been "limping" along with the last several years. Funny...I didn't untill today realize how slow that is. Ho ever did I manage.
Curently, 38$ for phone service plus 28$ for 1.5M DSL will be replaced by 42$ for 7M DSL and 21$ for the VOIP. The latter also has a second year free which prorates out to a total bottom line of about 50$/mo vs about 67$ now. Hey, don't laugh. While that won't even buy me one "Double Tall 2-pump Mocha" per week, I'l' still take it.
2 "virtual lines" plus another phone number that can be in any area code I want (which will give family in Western WA a local number to call that will reach us will be sweet. Especially considering the fact that as 2 of our kids are in 5th and 7th grade respectively, total phone usage is going to likely sky-rocket. Tones of fun features are included like custom VM greetings for a given caller, a home number that follows you to nearly any internet connection, configurable forwarding of your phone number based on who is calling you, the list goes on.
The "geek" factor I will freely admit, is enticing. It is very "gadgetal"
As it is now, I have procured another DSL "modem" and configured it as a backup for hot-swap fail-over coverage as more than just surfing will depen on my Internet up-time, here shortly.
Might as well be fishing for whales...
