Thinking about signing on for Cable telephone service? READ THIS FIRST!!
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Seems like everyone wants to be in the telephone business these days. We are constantly bombarded with advertisements on how we can lower our telephone bills to a fraction of what they are now by signing up for the new technology know as VOIP or internet phone service. All the major cable TV companies are aggressively marketing this service but before you make the decision to change over there are some things to consider that are not very well explained by these companies. Sure, you can find them in the small print but its pretty well hidden. First and foremost, the most important thing you should ask the company you are considering is if there service is capable of E911. This is the service that provides your name and address to emergency personnel in the event of an emergency even if you cannot speak. As soon as you call 911, they know where you are. You can rest assured, that if you are sick or injured to the point you cannot speak that help will be dispatched to your location. The Federal Communications Commission has made it mandatory that all these companies provide this service but the deadline for this mandate had been pushed back and many VOIP companies still do not provide this service. So in other words, you do not have 911 capabilities with this service at all. Some other companies maintain their own call centers that can capture your name and address but then the call has to be relayed to the proper Emergency center so help can be dispatched. This adds precious time to the response you will receive. Another point to remember is that with traditional telephone service, when you move or change addresses, the E911 system is automatically updated so if you find it necessary to make an emergency call, your call is routed to the proper emergency center, your new information is displayed and emergency crews will be dispatched to your new location. This information update happens with no action on your part. With VOIP, if you move or change addresses, it is your responsibility to remember to call your VOIP provider and update your information. If you fail to do so, emergency response will be dispatched to your last address. Can you imagine if you move to another city and neglect to change your information, emergency crews will be dispatched to your previous location in your previous city! Another point to remember is in the event of a power failure, your phone will not function. This service uses adaptors that require power from your home. With traditional phone service, the phone company’s central offices have generator and battery back that keep the phone working without commercial power for as long as needed. If you have and extended power outage, this could become an issue to be considered. One last point I would like to mention is with this service, if you are using your computer the same time you are using your phone, you could experience some voice quality issues. So to wrap things up here, the purpose of this article is hopefully to educate people when they are making a decision on what type of phone service to rely on. I hope this has enlightened you.
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