VoIP Vs VoDSL
6 Sep 2008, 2:41 pmThe difference between Voip and VoDSL simply put is VoIP is primarily a residential service and VoDSL is a business grade service.
To accurately discuss this we need to look at a couple of things. VoIP (voice over internet protocol) is a generic term. It is when you use a data connection for voice. It splits your conversation into packets, sends them across the internet where a router on the other end reassembles the packets so that the person at the other end can here the conversation. There is a few obvious problems with this solution. Everyone who has used the internet knows it is temperamental at best, so while the packets are broken down and then reassembled it can cause latency problems, packet loss through the internet means that you can miss every second or third word or parts of the word. This would have been experienced by most people at some stage when a telemarketer calls us or when using our digital mobile phones. There are security issues.
Most companies who are offering VoIP are not phone companies and therefore do not have a telecommunications licence and hence cannot port your number into or out of their network and are not answerable to the TIO (Telecommunications industry ombudsman). The solution is to keep some of your traditional phone lines for QOS (Quality Of Service), for your inbound calls and for redundency. So Why go to VoIP you may ask yourself and this is a great question. Most people consider VoIP for its value proposition which is very quickly chewed up when you need to increase band width for your internet connection, you are charged for you phone calls as well as data down loads and then you are asked to keep some phone lines just in case the VoIP solution is not working. Companies will tell you that you don’t need your lines, just get a business grade internet connection such as Ethernet which offers speeds upto 1gig/1gig however they neglect to tell you that you cannot determine the path of which a call will travel through the internet, with this technology you are only as good as your weakest link which is beyond your control.
Other problems also exist but none more frustrating than when you do actually have a fault and you report this to your VoIP Provider they tell you it must be the internet connection. when you call your ISP they will then tell you that your connection if fine. You are now stuck in a battle of responsibility, whose obligations stop where and starts where.
With VoDSL (voice over digital subscriber line) is a type of VoIP which has been used for many years on a carrier level. It is basically where you use a DSL line which is capable of carrying multiple PSTN lines or ISDN primary rate at a cheap infrastructure cost therefore the phone company and the customer is saving money. The call always remains on a private network, never enters the world wide web therefore is never compromising the security of your call. The provider of this technology is generally a Phone company and as such has a telecommunications licence and is answerable to the TIO and must act in an ethical manner when dealing with clients and if they do not there is massive financial repercussions for them. They can guarantee the up time of 99.95% because they are not reliant on other sites and servers working and we can guarantee the call quality because we can determine the path the call travels to get to your nearest phone exchange or the exchange nearest to where the call is terminating.
After all things considered VoIP is an excellent solution for some one at home trying to keep in touch with family and friends around the country or around the world where the quality and security of a call do not matter and a free call is the desired result. For a business who is trying to compare VoIP V’s VoDSL, VoDSL will win all day. The phone company delivers an SHDSL connection at no charge to the customer with no internet access, you do not have to worry about expensive hardware solutions for compatibility with phone systems and your business call quality which is of the utmost importance is not compromised.
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