You still have a land line?

A relative of mine recently got Verizon FiOS, a new high speed Internet connection, connected to their home. FiOS is only available in certain parts of the country today, as Verizon has yet to lay fiber optic cables to all neighborhoods around the country. FiOS destroys the Internet offerings made by the cable companies in Columbus, OH. While the FiOS service offers TV and phone, it's largely sold as a "next generation Internet" connection.

The advent of FiOS got me thinking about how people are using their Internet connections today, especially with regards to phone usage. With FiOS, you can bundle your Internet with digital phone services from Verizon. You get unlimited calling plans, for a monthly fee, along with your Internet connection. You don't need new phones - the cable company will make your existing phone in your house work with the "digital phone" service. We will talk about digital phones services, as well as talk about options for people who just want to use their mobile phone and have no home phone at all.

Digital Phone Options

While the broadband provides like Verizon or Time Warner now offer "digital phone" services along with Internet services, you do have other options that provide more features. In fact, there are now HUNDREDS of options to use your Internet connection for your phone for a monthly fee. Vonage is the most well publicized, but that are many upstarts offering voice of Internet. In addition to phone services, many VoiP services allow you to check your messages on the web, get snazzy features like custom rings or even multiple phone numbers. These are features the big phone companies don't offer or offer at a premium. In general, these companies charge a monthly fee for their service and require you to purchase equipment that allows you to make phone calls over your Internet connection. Some providers require you to purchase additional hardware for each phone in the house, others will make all your phones work with additional hardware.

The technology to talk over the Internet is call Voice-over-Internet-Protocol, commonly called "Voice over IP" or "VoIP." The VoIP experience is good if you have a stable Internet connection that is available and up 24/7. If you have spotty Internet access, you constantly have to turn your router off and on, avoid VoIP. You need a prime time highly available Internet connection to get a great experience out of VoIP or digital phones. Now, VoIP can be a confusing term because it just implies "hey I'm talking over my internet connection!" There are VoIP systems like Skype that only permit you to talk to other Skype users for free, and then there are VoIP systems like Vonage that allow you to make phone calls that can reach outside the VoIP system and call people on mobile phones or land lines.

The phone service business is getting innovative. I came across a company called ooma that offers a VoiP phone service with no monthly fee. You purchase the equipment for $249.99 and your done. No monthly fees. The company's product is gaining popularity, though skeptics are still wondering whether the upstart company, founded in 2007, will survive.

If you're a heavy phone users, there are savings to be had with going over a phone+internet bundle that your Internet provider offers or a VoIP company service. Yes, it's trendy for limited phone users to not have any phone service in the house and just have a mobile phone, but that might not work if you run a small business and need a fax machine, or get spotty mobile connectivity all over the house. (Does your mobile work in the basement??)

I just want to use my Cell Phone

There are some cool technologies out there if you just want to use your cell phone, too. Panasonic has a Link2Cell product enables all your phones in the house to use your mobile phone connection. This can be useful for people with dead spots in the house.

Way more interestingly, though, are mobile phones that just will automatically use your home Internet connection when it is available! The benefits of using your home Internet connection are: 1/ better reception to the mobile phone base station in your home than the cell phone network, 2/ the minutes used don't go against your plan, and 3/ fast Internet access instead of just 3G. Sprint phone users in select cities can do this with the Sprint Airave product. T-Mobile offers "Unlimited Hotspot Calling." The equipment to make this happen is not available yet from providers like Verizon or AT&T. Add is exploring the idea, calling it a Femtocell.

The mobile phone using the Internet connection technology is a step up from what is offered today by companies, in my view, and is much more compelling than VoIP services or digital phones. I hope the technology to use a mobile phone over your own home Internet connection becomes more broadly adopted and available around the country.

Oh, Other FiOS notes

There were several features of the FiOS experience that impressed me. The TV guide system is 2x better than what I've seen from other companies, easier to use and just prettier. The internet connectivity is stable, doesn't drop, and is speedy at 50 Mbps. That level of speed makes activities like downloading movies or television shows bearable. I never had the patience with my cable connection.

When the Verizon guy installs FiOS, he puts a little box on the side of your house called the Optical Network Terminal (ONT). This adapts the fiber optic connection to the existing cable connection in your home. Some consumers have complained that, after installing the ONT, Verizon will remove the copper phone line connection to your home, making it impossible to go back to copper based services! Watch out for that if you want to keep your options open - Verizon is required by law to share the copper lines to your home with other service providers but does not have to share the fiber optic line, by law. For more details on the installation and some nifty pictures of phone lines, check this blog out.

The FiOS package also comes with a wireless internet router, so you don't have to purchase one yourself.