You may be wondering whether or not VoIP is a reliable technology, particularly since it is fairly new. A simple answer to this question is yes, VoIP is just as reliable as the Internet. But there are a few considerations with this issue, and this article will briefly discuss these.

The Internet, as a method of communications, is very reliable. There have only been a couple of instances in the recent past where the Internet was “down”. These instances both involved email “worms”, and actually only slowed response time to a crawl. The Internet was still “up”, it was just overwhelmed. The major reason for this reliability is that the Internet was specifically designed to provide a method of communications during large-scale natural or man-made disasters. The Internet has built-in redundancy, and its basic design is one that makes it almost impossible for it to be disabled. So as far as VoIP is concerned, there is little doubt as to the reliability of the medium being used to carry your calls. Most of the reliability issues of VoIP have to do with either an individual service provider or with the VoIP equipment that you may be using.

VoIP does require a service provider presence on the Internet in order to function. So the reliability of your service will depend on the ability of your service provider to maintain this presence. Most providers have considerable redundancy built into their servers and other hardware. This means that if they do experience a problem, you will likely never be aware of the fact. Their backup systems are designed to take over almost instantly in the event of a failure, so it is likely that the worst problem you would experience would be a slight interruption in service. This would be similar to a call “breaking up” or being “dropped” by a cell phone, but is not nearly as likely to happen with VoIP as it is with cell phone service.

Problems with your VoIP equipment, such as ATAs (or analog telephone adapters) or USB softphones could cause problems with your VoIP service. While today's electronics are extremely reliable, if you intend to rely heavily on your VoIP service then it is a good idea to have replacement hardware available. If your system is dependent on one ATA or you have a high speed modem that incorporates an ATA, then it would be a good idea to have a backup unit available. This holds true for your USB softphone as well. If your service provider offers a software softphone, then you could consider this as a means of backup as well.

Another consideration that needs to be made is that VoIP service will likely not be available to you during a local power outage. This is true for a couple of reasons. First, it is likely that your high speed Internet connection will be down if the power outage is widespread. Second, if you do not have power to your home, your local VoIP hardware (ATAs, phones or modems incorporating ATAs), as well as the hardware associated with your high speed access (modem or router) will not have power. If you use a softphone, your PC will be down as well. VoIP users solve usually solve this problem by maintaining basic service on their regular telephone or by relying on cell phones for emergency communications.

Another thing to keep in mind is that VoIP is a relatively new technology. Given the large number of advantages that VoIP offers, the demand for its services is growing rapidly. This means that VoIP providers, as well as providers of broadband access, are hard at work on solutions to the problem of service availability during power outages.

As you can see, VoIP is an inherently reliable technology. Although, at this point in time, you should probably not rely on VoIP as your sole means of voice communications, there is no need for this to stand in the way of your taking advantage of the many enhanced features and cost savings that it offers

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