VoIP gets more mainstream every day
March 10, 2005 by Mike Wendland
I wonder how many of us grasp the huge change that Voice over Internet Protocol technology is bringing to the way the world communicates. Businesses and consumers alike are flocking to the always cheaper and now almost as reliable as landline quality of VoIP. What intriguies me in the story of AOL’s new move into VoIP was a sentence in the following report that notes: “Customers will be able to use their existing phones by means of an adapter that links the phones to the customers’ broadband routers.” Things are moving fast.
AOL to Launch VoIP Within a Month
I recently signed up for Sunrocket.com for $199.00 for 1 year of unlimited VOIP nationwide service.
Very satisifed except slow to change over phone number.
Customer service is helpful and friendly.
G Kania
AOL’s entry into the VoIP is interesting to say the least (particularly once one considers that their decreasing customer base for Internet is still primarily dial-up). “Customers will be able to use their existing phones by means of an adapter that links the phones to the customers’ broadband routers.” suggests that they are going the route of something similar to the Cisco ATA186, which was what Vonage was using two generations of adapters ago. An additional puzzling aspect is that the “stereotypical” AOL user is not using a router.
As for the related article, suggesting VoIP is the nail in the coffin for POTS, maybe that is what the future hold, but things ain’t there yet. There are still quite a few homes that don’t have broadband installed and many of those who do have DSL with an active POTS line prerequisite for their DSL service.