Is Internet telephony worth the hassle April 22nd, 2007
It is becoming easier and easier to handle Internet telephony alongside the POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service). Answer your POTS number using the same hand piece that you also answer Skype call, or make a Sykpe call or a POTS call using the same device.
I have tended to stay away from Internet phone services due to the fact that the quality of calls does not always match the hype. I mean, I have got business to do and spending half your time working out simple little problems is not worth the savings made from Internet telephony.
My normal phone bill is only around $80 more or less by about $20. I do a heap of my communication by email, and instant messaging. So to change to Skype for telephone calls is not going to save me much. It is possibly going to mean about a $40 saving as I will need to keep some POTS service for when I need to test an ADSL product (my job these days is spend trying out services, software and solutions and reporting to organizations their best options).
For your home office, seriously, if you want to try out Internet telephony, place a bet on either side of the table; a Dualphone hand piece enables you to have best of both worlds. You can keep your POTS number and get a Skype number. Advertise both numbers so that if others are on Skype you can cut the cost totally; Skype-to-Skype is free.
Adding that extra method of being connected and you may just get a few more customers who are also out there using new technologies. Baby boomers are inti everything new; they often kick the old mold to do new things. And Internet Telephony is just one more avenue for communicating with customers.