"You have to decide at what point good quality takes precedence over the lower cost," Kagan says. "Just like a traditional phone line, when it doesn't work, it's a nightmare. If all a company sells are services and the telephone [VoIP or traditional] doesn't work, then there are going to be problems."
The quality of VoIP differs from market to market, from service to service and sometimes from day to day. The VoIP services offered by cable companies or through phone companies tends to be better than that offered by many of the VoIP start-ups (Vonage, 8x8, etc.), but in some of the more mature markets, there's no noticeable difference between a traditional phone call and a VoIP call, Kagan says.
Power or high-speed Internet connections are unreliable: If outages of power or high-speed Internet connections occur frequently, a traditional phone system may be more reliable. Traditional phone systems still use lines that are separate from electric power lines. So a power outage doesn't mean the phone is out as well. Loss of high-speed Internet also means loss of VoIP capability.
Backup generators can help in the event of a power loss, but the enterprise needs to determine if it's better off using backup power for computers and other systems that don't have any separate source of power, like a traditional phone line.
The enterprise needs features VoIP doesn't provide: The most notable of these today is E-911. The emergency phone service is starting to become available in some markets, but still isn't offered in many others. While many of the VoIP offerings boast extra features (e.g., caller ID) at no additional charge, some don't offer all of the additional features of a traditional phone system.
High-speed Internet isn't available: VoIP doesn't work over dial-up. Though the availability of broadband is growing rapidly, it's still not available in many areas of the country. Cable copies are offering VoIP service in an increasing number of markets, but have yet to extend the service to mid-size and smaller cities.
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