New services and hardware that let you call cheaply over the Internet are all the rage. But do you really want to troubleshoot phones?

Michael Desmond

Don’t look now, but your telephone service is about to get a lot smarter and more affordable. By the end of 2006, Forrester Research predicts, nearly 5 million U.S. households will adopt Voice over Internet Protocol phone service, which operates over both broadband cable and DSL Internet connections.



VoIP phone services from companies such as 8x8 and Vonage helped launch this telephony revolution by offering sharply lower fees. Subsequently, consumer giants such as Cablevision, Comcast, and AT&T entered the fray, hoping to lure a flood of new subscribers. More recently, U.S. telecommunications giant Verizon jumped in with a national VoIP service of its own, called VoiceWing. And AT&T, in announcing in late July that it would no longer market traditional phone services to consumers, said it would keep its feature-laden CallVantage Service and other VoIP offerings.



AT&T and Verizon appear to be competing on service and features rather than on price. While Vonage service costs $30 a month, AT&T’s CallVantage runs $35 per month for unlimited local and domestic long-distance calling, and VoiceWing’s basic price is $40 a month for similar servicerates that are still nicely below most traditional phone bill totals.

Meanwhile, next-generation VoIP services are starting to appear, including some that use wireless 802.11b networks. Ultimately consumers may find themselves with a single, intelligent handset that combines Wi-Fi Internet phone and cellular access.

The crux of VoIP’s attraction right now is the fact that it lets you cut your phone bill significantly. Nevertheless, as tempting as that may be, the complexity of Internet telephony makes it a poor fit for most households and small businesses today. Every dollar saved by moving to an Internet phone service could be lost to unpredictable service outages, network configuration hassles, and spotty call quality. To put it simply, when was the last time you had to reboot your phone?

Talking Shop
What began in 1995 as a way for PC hobbyists and geeks to circumvent long-distance charges is now mainstream. With a service subscription, setup is simple, at least in theory. You’re provided with a small box called a VoIP gateway, or adapter, that connects to the cable or DSL modem on one side and to the PC or network router on the other. Plug a standard phone into the jack on the adapter, and just start dialing.

Offering this level of service is a model that has worked well for Vonage. Now AT&T’s feature-rich CallVantage and Verizon’s entry are raising the profile of VoIP.

«Now Voice over IP is not some flaky, call-from-your-PC service, delivered by some brand name that you’ve never heard of,» observes Charles Golvin, a principal analyst with Forrester Research.

More important, CallVantage delivers superior performance and features, adds Andy Abramson, an Internet phone industry watcher who publishes his own blog.

«The call quality of CallVantage clearly exceeds [that of] everybody else. If you upload a file while on a CallVantage call, you don’t notice it, because they do quality of service [processing] in the box,» says Abramson. Behind CallVantage’s clear calls is an updated adapter that does all the work of translating voice signals into digital packets bound for the Internet. The new D-Link DVG-1120 Gateway with two telephone ports incorporates service-quality features to prioritize and reserve bandwidth for phone calls. Without such processing, even a simple file uploadsuch as sending mailcan reduce call quality. CallVantage also touts a Personal Call Manager Web site that lets each subscriber fine-tune dozens of featuresfrom standard fare like call forwarding and voice mail to extras like a «do not disturb» setting, calls that can reach you at multiple numbers, and multiparty conferencing.



Verizon’s VoiceWing service was announced too late for me to test, but will it legitimize VoIP? «Absolutely,» says Abramson. Still, he faults Verizon for «charging more and delivering less.»



Wi-Fi Enters

Another development in VoIP calling is a clutch of Internet phones that work with 802.11 Wi-Fi networks. Vendors such as Belkin, Pulver Innovations, and Zyxel are pushing hard to market these devices, which look a lot like typical cordless house phones. A Wi-Fi Internet phone, however, can sense Wi-Fi access points and link automatically to the Internet. Wander into a Wi-Fi hotspot location (where you have a subscription service), and your Internet phone can place and receive calls.





Walk the Talk

So how easy are the latest phones and services to install and use? In my tests with two new products, I spent significant time troubleshooting.



With Zyxel’s new Prestige 2000W VoIP Wi-Fi Phone, the first model that I received refused to work with any of the popular wireless routers I tried. The second behaved the same way until I obtained Zyxel’s ZyAir B-2000 wireless router (this phone later worked nicely with a D-Link DI-614+ router, as well). Less than a minute after that, I was making calls.



The 2000W’s range on my 802.11g network was only about 25 feet, and at that distance call quality was marginal. But business travelers may flock to these Wi-Fi phones, since they’ll let users make calls on their unlimited Internet phone service dialing plan from public hotspots, whether in an airport, an office building, or a local café.



Launching CallVantage involved similar glitches. After signing up, I received a kit containing the D-Link adapter, which required just a few seconds to hook to the cable modem, home network router, and phone. Once I started everything up and logged in to the CallVantage Service site, however, the D-Link unit failed to complete an online registration step. After struggling on my own, I spent about an hour with technical support before learning that my Internet service provider blocks access to the network port that CallVantage relies on to communicate with the adapter.



The next day I tried the unit using a friend’s DSL connection and was able to quickly complete the process.



Call quality was excellent, without the momentary voice dropouts (very short lulls) common with my Vonage service. When I uploaded a 2MB file during a CallVantage call, the other party noticed no change in call quality. By contrast, trying the same upload with Vonage produced a blizzard of pauses and dropouts.



Trash Talking

As a Vonage subscriber for six months, I’ve found that Internet phone call quality can be wildly variable. One call is crystal clear, but on the next voices sound as if they’re coming from the bottom of a swimming pool. Since I didn’t have time to live with CallVantage for as long as I have with Vonage, I simply can’t say whether its impressive performance holds up over time. In fact, the inconsistent call quality of VoIP is just one issue. To understand others, see the «Hidden Costs» sidebar. And if you opt to use VoIP and you have trouble, try these tips:



Check the connection: If your VoIP service is on the blink, first check your modem status to see whether your PC can access the Internet. When your cable or DSL access goes down, so does VoIP.



Upgrade your modem: Older cable modemsspecifically, those that lack DOCSIS 2.0 capabilitycan struggle with efficient packet delivery. You may need a new modem to improve call quality.



Move the telephone adapter: To eliminate crashes try placing your network router between your modem and your adapter, which allows the router to block intrusions. To improve call quality, place the adapter between the modem and the router, where it can set aside voice-call bandwidth.





Money Talks

If Internet phone service can be so difficult, why are customers flocking to it? In a word: savings. For instance, Vonage recently reduced its $35 monthly fee for unlimited local and long-distance by $5. And for as little as $20 per month, you can find flat-fee, all-you-can-use local and long-distance dialing plans with advanced features like conference calling, call forwarding, voice mail, and caller ID. (Go to «Internet Phones: Clear Winners» to read our review of eight Internet phone services.) Similar servicesthough often lacking some advanced featuresusing a fixed-line connection from your local Baby Bell cost $50 per month or more.



More-advanced networking hardware should minimize future Internet phone service installation problems. Then we could look for one smart handset to do it all: act as a VoIP cordless phone in the home, as a cellular phone on the freeway, and as a Wi-Fi Internet phone while you’re sipping coffee. But it will take another two to three years, VoIPWatch’s Abramson expects, for that vision to be realized. «We are only scratching the surface of what is possible with Voice over IP,» he says.



Hidden Costs: Consider Before Switching



Low rates and slick features are nice, but Net phone service remains a mixed bag for consumers and businesses alike. As the Federal Communications Commission and Congress continue to mull new taxes and regulations on these services, the savings from a switch seem likely to shrink. And frustrating network setup issuesI probably spent 6 hours total trying to get AT&T’s CallVantage to workcan overwhelm all but the most technically astute users.



What’s more, Internet phone service call quality and consistency continue to trail that of traditional fixed-line service. VoIP is also more susceptible to outagesif you lose either power or your broadband connection, you’re out of luck.

Consider, too, whether older products and services you use rely on standard phone lines. Digital video recorders commonly need a fixed line to post updates from their central servers. And home security systems require a standard line for calling the central office when an alarm is tripped.

Other issues loom. For instance, providers have begun enabling the migration of existing phone numbers between service providersthe process is called number porting which can be both difficult and time-consuming. No mechanism exists for recovering phone numbers from a defunct Internet phone company.

«Imagine picking the wrong Voice over IP company,» says Andy Abramson, an Internet phone industry watcher. «You migrate the phone number you’ve had for 20 years over to the wrong company, they go out of business, and nobody wants to buy them. What happens to your phone number? How do you get it back?» Today, unfortunately, nobody really knows.