Voice over Internet Protocol has been present in the market for a quite some time now. Initially when it was introduced critics argued about its scope in the industry. All criticism regarding Voice over Internet Protocol technology has been proved to be false and now Voice over Internet Protocol usage is expanding drastically. There are numerous Voice over Internet Protocol service providers in the country. The market has in fact experienced intense competition in the past few years. Users who switched to VoIP services have experienced surprisingly huge savings and this has led to the increase in demand for VoIP services specifically in the residential sector. The competition is driving corporations to introduce new and improved Voice over Internet Protocol services to cater the differing needs of the market.
Besides residential VoIP users, even large corporations and organization which includes Hospitals and multinationals are all switching to VoIP phone service. This has helped businesses to enhance their productivity by allowing their employees to communicate with their fellow employees around the world and in case of hospitals; doctors have been able to stay in touch with fellow doctors at a lesser cost. The use of VoIP services by large organizations has led to the development of Wireless Voice over Internet Protocol services. This service is competing against the cellular phone service providers. This service allows users to stay in touch at a lesser cost and more efficiently with their fellow colleagues working in a large facility.
With the diverse market faced by the VoIP service providers, VoIP service providers can be categorized into two; business VoIP service providers and residential service providers. Residential VoIP service providers are finding slight difficulties to grasp the market because potential residential VoIP users have to take a few disadvantages of switching to VoIP into consideration when compared to home phone services offered by home phone service providers. Some of the disadvantages associated with using VoIP for residential users is that in case of a power outage they do not have access to any phone service. As the VoIP service operates via the internet, therefore if there is a power outage or if your internet service is not in order than you will also be deprived of VoIP phone services. Furthermore, it is imperative that one has a high speed broadband internet connection in order to support the massive data transfer. So if one of the above issue takes place, residential users cannot even make emergency calls. However as it is a major issue, it is being addressed by many residential VoIP services as they are offering power backup systems along with their services.
Taking the issue of emergency situation a step forward; various residential VoIP service providers up till now do not offer 911 emergency services, however as per new FCC regulations all VoIP service providers need to offer e911 services.
Residential VoIP service provider though have been able to capture a substantial share of the market but it still has a long way to go, however service providers are optimistic about the future. Introduction of VoIP in the market, home phone service providers have to face competition from not only cellular service providers but also from VoIP service providers.
