VoIP Awareness Outpaces Understanding, Poll Finds

Cost savings, convenience, and reliability would be best enticements to switch.

Erik Larkin, Medill News Service

WASHINGTON-- VoIP may be the talk of the town, but even the tech-friendly may not understand the basics of how Internet phone service works, according to online poll results released this week.

The survey, conducted by SunRocket, a Virginia-based Internet phone company, found that 85 percent of those questioned had heard of VoIP or Internet phone service. But only about half knew, for example, that you can use a regular telephone to make VoIP calls or that the calls do not have to go through your computer.

The poll of 2228 respondents, conducted in late February, had a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.

The poll "demonstrates that consumer awareness does not equate to consumer understanding," says Joyce Dorris, co-founder of SunRocket, was which founded in 2004.

Because the poll was conducted online the respondents were likely more "tech-savvy," SunRocket says. The vast majority of respondents, 97 percent, had Internet access at home, and about two-thirds had broadband. One in 20 already had Internet phone service.

VoIP, or voice over Internet Protocol, works by using an adapter to send voice calls from regular phones digitally over a broadband Internet connection instead of over a standard phone line. Its growing popularity is based on the promise of a cheaper monthly phone bill combined with features not generally available with regular phone service, such as the ability to check your home voice mail from your computer at work. But wider acceptance may depend on overcoming some obstacles, according to the survey.

What They Liked

Respondents ranked saving $500 a year as the best carrot from a series of 15 potential VoIP enticements. The idea of unlimited free calls to anywhere in the country was second.

The poll's results also underscored the desire for convenience and reliability. Respondents ranked the ability to keep the same phone number as third and the ability to keep phone service working during a power outage fourth.

An ongoing issue for VoIP, having an address sent automatically to a dispatcher during an emergency 911 call, ranked eighth.

Companies like SunRocket and the more established Vonage continue to spread the word about Internet phone service.

"I'm actually pleasantly surprised" by the poll, says Brooke Schulz, senior vice president of corporate communications at Vonage. "In 2002, if you were not in the telecommunications industry, I'm 99 percent sure you would not have heard of VoIP."

But, she says, "I do think we have some ways to go in getting to the average consumer."