Voip or land line

[Guest]

Hello, I am from Switzerland and have never used Voip service. I have heard a lot, that voip is cheaper and is more convenient for taking abroad without roaming.
Please share with your feedback, is voip reliable? What service do you use. Thanks.

 

[PhilFrisbie]

VOIP is as reliable as your Internet service. I am using a cell phone as my primary because my cable Internet service is NOT reliable enough for me to depend on.

 

[devik]

VoIP is very reliable, most businesses actually use it for many reasons including the many features that come with it which you can't get from a normal landline.

Here is a highly recommended VoIP device that's very simple to use:
http://www.amazon.com/OBi110-Service-Bridge-Telephone-Adapter/dp/B0045RMEPI/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1361508407&sr=8-2&keywords=obi

It's worth noting that you can use a normal cordless phone or even use your computer to make calls, record them, setup voice mail.

I use Google Voice which is free however you couldn't get that in Switzerland being that I believe it's North America only as of right now.

Some other popular voip services that you may have in Switzerland include:

-Facetime
-Skype (should have this for sure, most popular but sometimes more expensive)
-Oovoo
-Cisco TelePresence

Note: With Google Voice you may be able to get it if you registered or used a friends US phone number and set your google account to US. That's only an assumption. I like it a lot though, it works on my cell phone, computers, and browsers very well.

 

[john-b691]

See this depends on what you mean reliable. If you mean day to day where you can tolerate a dropped call or a few times a year where your internet goes down you can't make calls then it is very reliable. If you mean in life and death situations then its not even close to the definition of reliable. You get a big storm that takes out your power and you need to make a emergency call you are out of luck unless you have a UPS and maybe a generator if the power is out for long.

This is the key reason in the US that you are REQUIRED to use old analog type phone lines from the telco for things like elevators.