Disadvantages of Voice Over Internet Protocol

VoiP challengesThe rapid evolution of technology is offering people new ways of accomplishing tasks. For instance, it is allowing them to use electronic mail instead of the traditional way of writing letters. It is giving them the opportunity to move from a brick-and-mortal business to an electronic business. It is also giving them the chance to participate in virtual auctions instead of going to a traditional auction. However to every new technology there might be few hurdles. Similarly, VoIP presents major flaws in reliability.

The current phone runs on phantom power that is provided over the line from the central office. Consequently, if there is power outage the phone can still be used unless if it is a cordless. However, with VoIP, if there is no power that means there is no phone.

It is also a challenge for VoIP provider to connect directly to emergency services through 911. As mentioned earlier, VoIP uses IP-addressed phone numbers. An IP-address cannot be associated to a geographic location. So if the caller cannot tell the 911 operator where he or she is located, then there is no way to know which call center to route the emergency call to.

VoIP uses Internet connection which makes calls susceptible to viruses and worms. Quality is also affected with by packet loss.

Another issue associated with VoIP is having a phone system dependant on individual computers. A call can be affected by processor drain. For example, if a person is using VoIP and he or she decides to open a program that saps the processor. There can be system slow down and it is also possible that the system crashes in a middle of a phone call.