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2.7 Million VOIP Subscribers in the United States
prostoalex writes "There are 2.7 million paying VOIP customers in the United States, according to research by TeleGeography. The whole industry will generate $220 million this year, with Vonage leading as far as customer number."
I've given bucketloads to Skype for the PC2Phone services. But I've recently moved to voipbuster, where the calls are free... but hang up automatically after an hour. :(
In France, there's almost 2 millions VoIP subscribers, which means VoIP is three and a half more popular here.
:-)
This is mostly due to Free, a kick-ass ISP which bundles maximum-speed DSL access (4.6 Mbps in my case, 10,000 feet from the DSLAM), free VoIP communications (to all landlines in France, and cheap rates for everyhting else, except cellular phones), 100 free TV stations (plus 100 others for various fees), an unlimited number of 1 GB web spaces with unlimited bandwidth, no ads, and MySQL+PHP5 support, an unlimited number of mailboxes, and plenty of things I forget right now, all that for the great price of 30 euros per month.
Their customer service sucks, though, and you better not have problems, because they'll take a long while to be solved.
Overall, I'm happy.
I wonder how the VoIP and DSL services are in countries other than France and the U.S.
Well the main one that it's not SIP, so you can't take advantage of all of the SIP software and hardware. So I want it to ring an actual telephone.
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Also:
- distinctive ring
- call forwarding
- voicemail
Check out some of this stuff: http://www.voicepulse.com/features/advanced/defau
I don't need all of that but its certainly a laundry list of cool VOIP stuff.
Yes and no.
Unfortunately it's still mostly yes. Many VOIP vendors, including Vonage, are issuing disclaimers to avoid problems. There was a story recently in the Denver area regarding the death of a baby due to a 13 minute delay in getting the 911 call to an emergency response center in the correct part of town. The carrier (not Vonage by the way) allegedly had the wrong address in their 911 database.
VOIP vendors will (and probably should) issue disclaimers until they can work out a way to provide 911 service that is as reliable as that provided by the traditional carriers. Given that network and power outages still make VOIP unusable, this may take a while.
Bottom line: if 911 is important, keep a POTS (plain old telephone service) line. I do.
Never let reality temper imagination
Never let reality temper imagination
Another possible Skype alternitave is Gizmo they charge more than Skype for calling PSTN but the client UI is pretty full-featured.
Saying Java is nice because it works on all OS's is like saying that anal sex is nice because it works on all genders.
Sure, you can always reach 911, but if it works is another question. Here in Kansas City even with the tax increase for fire and police, 911 is still worthless. You will still reach 911 with Vonage, only to hear "your call is important, do not hang up!" for half an hour before you reach a human. Give another few hours for police to show up if they deem its REALLY an emergency. We approved concealed carry, because 911 is NOT working.
Most VoIP customers use cable internet, not DSL. And probably cancelled their land line. I use Vonage on my DSL line, but only because I got the DSL "bare", without having to buy dialtone from BellSouth on the line.
One factoid: phone companies are required to allow one to dial 911 on any phone line, whether it's active or not. So even if you cancel your phone service, you can still make a 911 call on the pair even if you don't have dialtone. Same deal with cellphones...any cellphone tower will take a 911 call from any compatible (GSM, DCMA, etc) phone in the area regardless of what provider it's subscribed to.