Net Phones Grow Up
Internet telephone services, including new offerings from big-name providers, have never been so clear and hassle-free. Our tests found the best of an impressive bunch.Jeff Bertolucci is a California-based freelance writer. Tom Kortie of Indianapolis contributed testing to this article.
Illustration by John Hersey
A lot has changed since we last tested Internet phone services 16 months ago ("Internet Phones: Clear Winners," May 2004). The Internet phone market, once the domain of scrappy startups like 8x8 and Vonage, has been invaded by telecommunications giants such as Comcast, Verizon, and--yes, Ma Bell herself--AT&T.
Simply put, Net phones are hot. Why? For consumers and small businesses, the price is right. An Internet phone service plan permitting unlimited calls to the United States and Canada costs as little as $20 per month, less than half of what you'd pay for a comparable landline plan.
We're not quite ready to ditch our landline phones, as VoIP still has some serious issues to resolve: problems with 911 service (see "E911: Coming to a VoIP Phone Near You"), installation hassles, power outages, dropped calls, and garbled and clipped sentences. Still, Net phone technology has improved dramatically since May of last year. We had far fewer setup problems this time around--installation woes are more the exception than the rule--and call quality showed marked improvement, approaching landline quality in many cases (except on weeknights, when Internet traffic tends to be busiest).
For the uninitiated, a brief primer: Internet phones work via your cable, DSL, or T1 broadband connection. They convert voice into data packets and route these packets over the Internet to a landline or cell phone (via a circuit-switched gateway) or travel the Net exclusively, if the person you're calling has the same service provider (Vonage-to-Vonage, for instance).
Unlike PC-based phone services such as Skype (see "Skype: Sorting Through the Hype"), Net phones don't depend on a computer to operate. You simply plug your home phone into a terminal adapter provided by your VoIP vendor (or into one you've bought at an electronics retailer such as Best Buy or Circuit City) and plug the adapter into a broadband modem/router. You can arrange to receive a terminal adapter when you sign up for service at a VoIP vendor's site, or you can buy an installation kit at retail.
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Put to the Test
Most VoIP providers supply online extras--allowing you to visit a Web site to listen to voice mail, view call logs, and configure account settings. But the sites vary in quality: AT&T's Web site is nicely laid out and easy to navigate, whereas Packet8's site is too bare-bones and doesn't offer access to voice mail.
We tested seven Internet phone services, from the Davids and the Goliaths of the industry: AOL Internet Phone Service, AT&T CallVantage, Comcast Digital Voice, Primus's Lingo, 8x8's Packet8, Verizon's VoiceWing, and Vonage.
In our tests over the course of a month, the most impressive service was AT&T CallVantage (soon to be owned by telecom behemoth SBC). Call it Ma Bell's revenge if you will, but CallVantage delivered the best call quality around the clock. We made dozens of calls with CallVantage, often while downloading or uploading large files, and encountered just one instance of a (barely perceptible) echo.
That said, no VoIP service is perfect. The first adapter that AT&T CallVantage sent us (a Linksys model) didn't work with our router. After spending a couple of days trying to get the Linksys adapter to work, AT&T tech support sent us a D-Link adapter, which worked perfectly.
This problem was the biggest setup headache that we encountered. We installed AOL, Packet8, and Vonage without a hitch; Lingo and Verizon VoiceWing required only brief calls to tech support; and a professional installer configured Comcast Digital Voice for us.
Every provider delivered reliable call quality, aside from an occasional glitch. AOL's service was great during the day, but it suffered from clipped sentences and garbling during long-distance weeknight calls, particularly when we simultaneously downloaded video. Verizon calls came with soft echoes from time to time, and Lingo and Vonage conversations had some clips and garbles during evening hours. Comcast and Packet8 delivered great audio quality; but Comcast's service is relatively expensive (see the chart, "Internet Calling Plans: How They Compare"), and Packet8's package lacks fax support.
Is there an advantage to going with a big-name VoIP vendor? Not necessarily. AT&T, our Best Buy, is a big name--but Packet8 calls were clearer than Verizon VoiceWing calls, proving that the little guys can provide winning service, too.
Internet Calling Plans: How They Compare
AT&T CallVantage offers landline-quality audio, but in our tests we found that most other providers were similarly reliable--despite occasional glitches that cropped up.
Dump the Landline?
IP telephony still has reliability issues. For one thing, if your broadband connection fails, so does your phone service. And if the power goes dead, your phone is out of order. (Not always, though: Comcast's adapter comes with a backup battery.) If you need to call 911 during a blackout, a flood, an earthquake, or some other emergency, a Net phone may be of little help.
On the other hand, VoIP does have perks. Customers can select any area code they want, regardless of their geographical location. And VoIP phones aren't tied to a home or office. You can call from a hotel or from halfway around the world--anywhere you can jack into high-speed Internet.
Businesses stand to benefit from VoIP, too. For instance, Packet8's Virtual Office, a $40-per-month Internet-based phone system, allows an unlimited number of staff extensions, even if the staffers are in a different city or continent. AT&T, Lingo, and Vonage have $50-per-month business plans with a fax line and unlimited calls to the United States and Canada. Lingo offers free Western Europe minutes, too.
One thing's for certain: The Internet is unmistakably the future of telephony.
Photograph by Rick Rizner
Want to learn more about VoIP? You can read a review of Net2Phone's VoiceLine XJ200 Wi-Fi handset (pictured at left) and BroadVoice's UT Starcom F1000 handset in "Internet Phones Call on Wi-Fi." These devices let you access your Net phone service from your favorite wireless hotspot. And check out our VoIP Info Center for the latest news and for even more reviews.
Skype: Sorting Through the Hype
Illustration by John Hersey
Can 42 million users be wrong?
That's how many people worldwide have installed Skype, a free PC-to-PC phone service that (for a fee) will also make and receive calls to and from conventional telephones.
Skype isn't a true alternative to a desktop phone. It's a software-based service that runs on Linux-, Mac-, and Windows-based systems. It requires a broadband connection and a headset.
The service is easy to use. A pop-up message notifies you when one of your Skype contacts is online, and you can initiate a phone call with a single click.
Skype is free only when used to make a PC-to-PC call to another Skype user, but users can be located anywhere in the world. We found the audio acceptable, though hardly of landline quality: We noticed some clipped sentences, yet voices were audible.
Calling a conventional phone from Skype using the SkypeOut service--which lets users make calls to landline, cell, and VoIP phones--is a different story. We experienced low volume, clipped sentences, and garbling.
Skype also offers a service called SkypeIn, which assigns you a regular phone number. People who don't use Skype can call this number, and the call will be routed to your Skype account.
Despite our grumbling, we like Skype. It's free, fast, and great for calling other Skype users, especially internationally. But keep your primary phone, please.
E911: Coming to a VoIP Phone Near You
Illustration by John Hersey
Good news: Soon VoIP service vendors must provide 911 service that rivals the emergency service offered to landline users. A May 2005 Federal Communications Commission ruling ordered IP phone companies to provide enhanced 911 (E911) service in place of basic 911. VoIP companies must comply with the FCC ruling by November 28.
Basic 911 emergency networks can't determine a caller's location or telephone number, meaning that you must provide this information to a call taker--no easy task in some emergencies. And that's if your call goes through at all. Earlier this year, Vonage customers in several states sued the VoIP vendor for failing to warn them of shortcomings in their 911 service. In one case a Texas woman tried to dial 911 from her Vonage phone during a home invasion. Her call connected to a recording announcing that no emergency access was available from that line. Vonage says that it's rapidly upgrading its network to E911, and it hopes that it will have completed the process by the end of 2005.
With E911, emergency calls go directly to a public service switchboard in your area; your address and phone number are automatically reported to emergency responders.
One potential issue with E911 service is its cost. "E911 costs will be passed along directly to customers," says Yankee Group senior analyst Brian Partridge. "I've heard estimates of $2 to $5 per customer [per month] for E911. And that's a mandatory part of service, not an option." None of the VoIP companies we approached for this story would comment on whether it will raise its rates in light of the FCC's ruling.
If your VoIP provider does not yet offer E911, you can still keep yourself safe. Most important, make sure that your provider has your current address (to pass along to E911), and always keep emergency numbers for your local police and fire departments handy. Even when your VoIP provider begins offering E911, the service is not automatic. To get it, you must register your street address with your VoIP provider, and update the address if you move.