Skype and Fios – Better, Cheaper, Faster
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, I worked in telecommunications as a Senior Account Manager for MCI WorldCom selling telecommunications services, which included local / long distance, frame relay, ATM, and various flavors of DS-X and OC-X. Cisco Systems and a number of smaller players were promoting VoIP and the convergence of voice, video and data on one network as the next big IT and telecommunications wave. A few years ago I started dablling with home office VoIP by using Packet 8 and Sunrocket (out of business and no longer providing service). Using my cable modem, the call quality of both services was decent – at least as good as a cell phone, and often better than a land line. When we moved into our new house, I had Verizon’s basic Fios internet and television service installed, and for the past six months I have been using SkypeOut (about $3 per month) with the VoSky Call Center and the Linksys CIT-200. Fios provides a consistent 5000 kbps download and about 1800 kbps upload internet connection for a very reasonable (under $50 per month) cost. The VoSky Call Center allows me to use my SkypeOut with any standard RJ-11 phone, and the CIT-200 is a solid wireless Skype enabled phone. The Skype call quality to cell phones, land lines, other VoIP and Skype users is superb, and the cost is unbelievable – with my usage, less than US $0.007 per minute (total)! Some drawbacks are that Skype’s E911 functionality does not exist, and caller ID is not displayed on the receiver’s end, however, for the cost and quality of the Skype / Fios service, I am willing to work around these issues. I hope Ebay keeps Skype, or hopefully Skype finds a new home at Google – the Skype / Fios combination is hard to beat for better, cheaper and more efficient phone service.
Tags: cit-200, fios, skype, voip, vosky
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