We firmly believe that most VoIP services that we examined, such as Vonage, can be a replacement quite acceptable for traditional telephone service without sacrificing any quality or reliability. But there are still many consumers who are not comfortable with making the transition from traditional phone service.
This is somewhat hard to believe given all the benefits of VoIP over traditional phone service. For example, VoIP services usually cost much less per month than traditional phone service and offer many features, such as access to voicemail from the web and free long distance, this traditional phone can simply not match.
The good news for consumers who are interested in VoIP, but are not quite ready to give up their traditional phone service is that suppliers to VoIP develop solutions that allow a phone line traditional live in harmony with VoIP technology. This trend is booming in England and we start to see similar deals in the United States.
For example, Ooma, a VoIP our rated service providers, offers two different versions of its service- which only uses your broadband connection and which incorporates both broadband and phone line standard. The main advantage of this option is that it enables consumers to keep a traditional telephone line which usually means to keep their existing phone number and have access to telephone service in the event of failure of broadband.
Frankly, we believe that the quality of the top VoIP service providers is so good that the additional line is usually unnecessary. That said, it is important to some people and we always see more options for consumers as a good thing.
We expect more developments in this area in 2008 and will chronicle all new VoIP services and features, as usual. In the meantime, check out our in-depth coverage of the VoIP service providers to NextAdvisor.com.