If you're like most people, you'd like to think that VoIP is a great technology that solves all of our communication problems. You'd like to think that VoIP is a panacea for every communication need that we might have. Right?
Not so, dear reader, not so.
Although there are indeed many good things to say about VoIP — I would be the last to deny that there were — there are still many things amiss with it.
I'm hardly a Luddite. I'm not advocating a return en masse to the days of candlestick handsets and human-operated switchboards. Yet there are things to think about before shifting over to IP communications mode. By the same token, there are still some good things to say about PSTN phone systems — before they're all absorbed into the great IP pie-in-the-sky, that is.
Point is, it was simple. And if the power went out, you could still count on the dial tone being there, because the power came from the PSTN network, not from the wall, as it does with VoIP phones. So you could still call 911 if you had to.
So many things have to happen in quick concert for good QoS on a VoIP call. Voice data has to be converted to digital, compressed, sent to the other end, decompressed and converted to sound; then the reverse process has to happen for the return trip. It all has to happen in milliseconds in order to sound natural. If it takes any longer, then you get echo, or it sounds like you're talking to a Martian, or you're talking over the other end of the conversation.
Not good. No one wants that.
But if your cousin Harville is watching reruns of Laverne and Shirley on Netflix in the other room while you're trying to call Dad, then he's going to see artifacts on his screen. At the same time, you're going to be saying "What? What was that, Dad?" a whole lot, because you won't be able to understand him very well, and it's pretty unlikely he'll be able to understand you, either.
Why? Because you got the cheap broadband, that's why. You thought the 15 Mbps download with 1.5 Mbps upload would do you just fine. Should have thought ahead, son, because that's good for one device at a time, not two or three. Might want to go with a beefier package, like the 50/5 or 110/11. These packages are what my local ISP offers, by the way; yours might be different.
Michelle Patterson
About the Author:
Michelle Patterson is excited with the new technologies that are threatening to change the way we stay in touch and communicate, particular in business. She works with companies that are introducing these technologies to make understanding them easy for regular people.
Not so, dear reader, not so.
Although there are indeed many good things to say about VoIP — I would be the last to deny that there were — there are still many things amiss with it.
I'm hardly a Luddite. I'm not advocating a return en masse to the days of candlestick handsets and human-operated switchboards. Yet there are things to think about before shifting over to IP communications mode. By the same token, there are still some good things to say about PSTN phone systems — before they're all absorbed into the great IP pie-in-the-sky, that is.
No Dial Tone
First of all, if you grew up with a dial tone like I did, there's the simple familiarity and ease of the PSTN network. (The house that I grew up in had a rotary phone, if you can believe that.) You pick up the phone, you get your dial tone, you place your call, and that's that. If you didn't get the dial tone, then another extension in the house was off the hook, or another house on the party line was using the phone, and you had to wait a bit. Yes, that and the dial phone dates me quite a bit, I know. Don't care, either.Point is, it was simple. And if the power went out, you could still count on the dial tone being there, because the power came from the PSTN network, not from the wall, as it does with VoIP phones. So you could still call 911 if you had to.
Quality of Service
The next problem I see with VoIP phones — not with the expensive business-class systems, but with the cheap MagicJack type systems, which in the interests of full disclosure I'll tell you I have no direct personal experience with. Yet I've gotten calls from people I suspect were using them. Those problems have to do with Quality of Service.So many things have to happen in quick concert for good QoS on a VoIP call. Voice data has to be converted to digital, compressed, sent to the other end, decompressed and converted to sound; then the reverse process has to happen for the return trip. It all has to happen in milliseconds in order to sound natural. If it takes any longer, then you get echo, or it sounds like you're talking to a Martian, or you're talking over the other end of the conversation.
Not good. No one wants that.
Bandwidth
3And then there's the issue of bandwidth. VoIP chews up bandwidth like a great white shark goes through tuna fish. If you're the only one using the broadband connection, you're golden.But if your cousin Harville is watching reruns of Laverne and Shirley on Netflix in the other room while you're trying to call Dad, then he's going to see artifacts on his screen. At the same time, you're going to be saying "What? What was that, Dad?" a whole lot, because you won't be able to understand him very well, and it's pretty unlikely he'll be able to understand you, either.
Why? Because you got the cheap broadband, that's why. You thought the 15 Mbps download with 1.5 Mbps upload would do you just fine. Should have thought ahead, son, because that's good for one device at a time, not two or three. Might want to go with a beefier package, like the 50/5 or 110/11. These packages are what my local ISP offers, by the way; yours might be different.
Michelle PattersonAbout the Author:
Michelle Patterson is excited with the new technologies that are threatening to change the way we stay in touch and communicate, particular in business. She works with companies that are introducing these technologies to make understanding them easy for regular people.
