Digital Internet VOIP Phones on an increase

Tuesday, September 19th, 2006

With the advent of Internet phone service, customers have a huge and confusing choice — and it doesn’t yet include Telus

Peter Wilson
Sun

Shaw’s Corey Mandryk installs a digital phone that uses VoIP technology. Photograph by : Bill Keay, Vancouver Sun

Mike Jagger of Provident Security warns using a VoIP phone without a backup could compromise your security system. Photograph by : Peter Battistoni, Vancouver Sun

Getting a home phone used to be simple. You went with Telus and tried to get the best deal you could for the extras like voice mail and call forwarding.

Then you hoped you had its best deal for long-distance calling.

If you were more adventurous, you could sign up with a separate service for your long distance. Or you could try a separate phone company with lower rates — even though that service still worked over Telus lines.

Now, with the advent of Internet phone service you have a huge and confusing choice — which doesn’t yet include Telus, which is waiting for the digital dust to settle a bit.

According to Telus representative Jim Johannssen, the company is watching the consumer VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) market very carefully, and will launch its product when the company believes the time is right.

“We don’t need to be in that market right now,” he said.

In other words, Telus is likely waiting until the price wars have fizzled out and large numbers of the present combatants are history before it marches in with its product.

That decision leaves the field clear for the more than 90 companies in the market. These range from the mom and pop shop and specialty firms to eBay’s Skype offering to the likes of Vonage and Primus to cable providers like Shaw.

And they all promise something cheaper than you can get from Telus.

The biggest draws are free long distance in Canada and the United States, Shaw’s 1,000 free minutes of overseas calling to select markets in Europe and Asia, and, in some cases, extras like call waiting and call forwarding bundled in with low pricing.

Shaw’s president Peter Bissonnette — whose company brags it is adding a subscriber every 96 seconds (or about 900 a day) — said in an interview that one of the reasons Shaw is doing so well is that its 1,000 free minutes of overseas calling has resonated with Vancouver customers

“When we launched in downtown Vancouver, in the West End and that sort of thing, we were surprised that it wasn’t going as fast as we thought,” said Bissonnette. “The reason we added the 1,000 minutes of international calling was frankly because of the Vancouver market. People there tended to make more international calls than North American calls and so we’ve done that and now it’s really picked up.”

So enticing has been the lure of alternative phone technology that various pundits are predicting more than 20 per cent of the Canadian market will be using VoIP (but don’t tell Shaw it offers a VoIP service) by 2009.

So what’s a consumer to do when faced with all this confusion?

Well, the first thing would be to read everything you can find from any Voice over IP service you’re considering (down to the very last asterisk in the very last print or online promotion) and make sure you understand completely what you’re getting.

Subscribers can start with Skype, a free online software-based service for all of North America. There are umpteen bells and whistles — including phones — to go with this, so you’re not just sitting there at your PC with a headset on anymore.

Then come the most basic of modem-based services which offer nothing more than a local phone line hooked up to your high speed modem.

After you can go on to the more elaborate deals from the people at companies like those listed in our chart, which include extras. Some also offer wireless phone sets, so you’re not stuck with a single phone attached to your modem.

Then there are offerings like Shaw Digital Phone. Installers connect this service to your home phone wiring and jacks. It then uses a separate dedicated network (not the open Internet, although it still uses VoIP technology) to carry your calls until they reach the telephone lines.

One confusing element to begin with is that, in a marketing attempt to separate itself from its competitors, Shaw is saying in its advertising that its service is not VoIP (voice over Internet protocol).

“We don’t consider ours an Internet phone system,” said Bissonnette. “It’s on a separate network and so it doesn’t contend at all with any Internet traffic as opposed to a VoIP service which does.

“So there’s a distinct difference and that difference is important because it cost us a lot of money to build our own network.”

Rogers Home Phone in Vancouver, despite the fact that it seems to be in the same game as Shaw, is not actually a VoIP service at all. It leases Telus telephone lines and connects to the phone network in a local telephone office or wire centre.

In Ontario and New Brunswick, where Rogers is a cable provider, it operates like Shaw.

So, if your definition of VoIP is a phone system that goes over the open Internet and competes with all the traffic flowing there then, yep, Shaw is not VoIP.

However, Shaw does use VoIP technology, just as Telus does for parts of its telephone system.

Another area of debate is over 911 service.

Shaw, for example, says its 911 service is superior because calls to it are routed to the nearest emergency response centre and the call-back number and street address are also automatically provided to the emergency dispatcher.

Other services may have 911 calls routed to their own phone rooms before they get to an emergency service.

It would be best, if this worries you, to check with any of the VoIP services you’re considering as to exactly what their 911 service level is in your particular area.

Another major VoIP consideration is whether various services will work quickly with your home alarm system.

Shaw’s Bissonnette insists there’s no problem with alarm systems and Shaw even tells potential subscribers to its phone service that it will give them the name of an alarm company that will set it up if their alarm company balks.

“I have an alarm system and I’ve had our Shaw phone for a year and a half now and it works just fine,” said Bissonnette.

And Rogers said that where its calls flow over an IP network in Eastern Canada, its phones are “fully compatible with home alarm systems.”

On the other hand, there are those like Michael Jagger, president of Vancouver-based Provident Security, who say no one can provide a guarantee that current alarm technology will work with VoIP.

“I think people are confused a lot by Shaw’s marketing when they talk about it,” said Jagger. “They pretty much say directly that the service is not voice over IP. Well it is.”

Jagger said there is non-facilitated and facilitated VoIP and that facilitated VoIP, which Shaw has, is clearly superior.

Even so, Jagger, whose company guarantees an on-the-scene response time of five minutes, suggests anyone with a VoIP service go with a backup to their burglar and fire alarm system, such as wireless or radio.

“We’re not telling people not to get Shaw,” said Jagger. “Our biggest issue with the security that we’ve seen is that it’s just not consistent.

“The fact that you get a signal working once doesn’t mean that its going to work the second time.”

Jagger said his company has done a lot of research on the matter.

“And I’ve spoken with all the guys that are the forefront of the packet cable technology, which is what Shaw is using and just the bottom line is it’s just not there yet,” said Jagger.

“They would be love to be able to certify the equipment. People have got to know it’s still a risk and it’s not as simple as saying, ‘Well, it can work.'”

Jagger said that while the system manufacturers may, within a year or so, guarantee that their alarms will work consistently over VoIP, they don’t do so now.

“The technology will just mature.”

Jagger said the cost of a cellular backup system is $400 for installation and then $20 a month after that.

“That means you’re wiping out some of the cost savings of going with VoIP.”

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THE FINE PRINT

Recently, Bell Canada estimated there were more than 90 companies offering Internet telephone service in Canada. Many are tiny and obscure, but there are a number with a large amount of public awareness. The following is an alphabetical listing of some of these and their rates.

Comwave:

Comwave’s iBasic phone service offers unlimited local calls with free iPhone to iPhone calling and caller ID block. $9.95 a month on a two-year deal or $14.95 on month-by-month.

iPhone Enhanced, which offeres enhanced 911 services, has eight extra services such as caller ID, call waiting, voice mail and Turbo speed dial: $14.95 a month on a two-year deal or $19.95 a month.

iPhone One Rate comes with same services as iPhone Enhanced plus unlimited Canada and U.S. calling. $29.95 a month.

Primus:

The Primus TalkBroadband Basic Service is local phone service over the Internet: $15.95 a month.

Talk Broadband Ultimate Bundle, including extra services such as call answer, caller ID block release, call display, visual call waiting, five-way calling, call forward, call hold: $19.95

Long distance plans are extra:

Five Anytime: five cents a minute to anywhere in Canada and the U.S., the U.K. and Hong Kong with other rates for other countries.

1000 Canada/US minutes. Call anywhere in Canada and the U.S. any time of day: $10 a month.