Commercials.  Web banners.  Radio spots.

There's no doubt that you've seen them all.  As Voip providers ramp up their advertising campaigns,  prospective Voip subscribers can't help but wonder if Voip all that great or a bunch of hype?  With all of the vonage commercials with the catchy tunes,  the big traditional phone service carriers pushing their own Voip services,  and the larger than life posters and cutouts in the electronics stores more and more people are becoming aware of Voip.

Behind all of the cutouts,  corny music and web banners is an extremely useful service which,  if you need it,  can save you a bundle of money.  For many people,  Voip truly is one of the "killer apps"  of the new millenium.  Whether Voip really lives up to all the hype depends on who's using it.  Voip is not for everyone.  If you spend little time on the phone,  there is no reason to use Voip.  Voip may not be for those who fear new things either.  If you fall into any of the categories below then you should at least consider trying out a voip service provider to save money:



You run a business with several branch offices in different cities

You telecommute and have to use long distance calls to stay in touch with your employer/contractor

You have relatives scattered about in different parts of the country or world

You find yourself making several long distance calls per day or even per week

You want lots of calling features such as call waiting,  call forwarding,  caller ID,  call blocking and more without paying extra for each feature.



If you fall into any of the below categories,  then Voip service may not be the right way to go:



You don't use your phone for business reasons

All of your relatives live close by,  or you're out of touch with them

You rarely make long distance calls

You don't need or care for extra features like call blocking,  caller ID,  etc.

You have a dial-up connection to the internet.



While Voip is a really great technology that can save you a massive amont of money each month,  it's still relatively new and has it's fair share of problems.  Network congestion can be a problem while you're in the middle of an important phone call.  It's a fact of life that sometimes routers and servers on the internet get busy and the pipes get clogged.  There is only so much bandwidth that can go through and when this happens the call will break up or get dropped.

What happens when your internet connection goes down in the middle of an emergency?   Yes,  you guessed it,  no 911 service on your Voip line.  At this time,  it's best to have either a standard phone or cell phone as a backup for emergencies.  The FCC has released a set of regulatory requirements for Enhanced 911 services that Voip providers must adhere to so the 911 service through the Voip provider will not be as much of a problem as network outages.

So,  should you jump right on the Voip bandwagon?  Don't believe the hype,  only you can make that decision for yourself.  Armed with the information in this article you'll be able to decide if Voip truly is the killer app of the new millenium or if it's just a toy.