* Readers weigh in on power issue with VoIP phones
A few weeks back, we discussed trends in residential VoIP and asked readers for their comments from the residential consumer perspective. This week, we’d like to pass on a few highlights from the commentary. We’d also like to thank the many of you who replied to our request.
Some readers expressed concerns about maintaining voice service in the event of power loss. One reader wrote, “It is very important for residential VoIP to guarantee the continuity of the telephone service in the event that the equipment is affected by a power failure. What’s your best way forward for it – maybe an FXO backup PSTN port in the gateway?”
Most power supply problems can be solved with battery backup distributed across the vulnerable network points. For example, Larry’s home service has a back-up battery built into the network gateway (located in his home) that will maintain about eight hours of life following power loss.
Another reader wrote: “I had a power outage, and Vonage has a forward [feature] in case they can’t reach your lines. I was receiving the calls fine on my mobile phone that was the default roll-to number.”
Cell phones remain good back-up (or even primary) phones. And for those who have cordless phones, please remember the cordless transceiver doesn’t work without AC power.
For the last word on power issues, we’ll defer to an emergency planner who said that for “every emergency center I advise in my current position, I recommend a mix of communications, but at least several analog lines for both reliability and fax… My phone always works. The power may go out, but my phone always works. Don’t ever take that away from me.”
Finally, several readers were concerned about VoIP support for E-911. We’ve discussed this topic at length in past editions, and we maintain that E-911 can be supported by VoIP providers except where the user is offered mobility via a softphone.
But in the words of another reader, “I’ve been in the telecom side of E-911 for nearly 30 years and somewhat to my dismay I find that most end users will forgo E-911 compatibility if there is cost involved. If the customer base demanded E-911 compatibility, [carriers] would provide it. If 911 [adds cost] (and it does) then there would be fewer VoIP customers. In today’s market there is no upside to being E-911 compatible and definitely a downside.”
