So today Chris Pirillo rants a little about Vonage, which I think is a good thing. God knows there are enough ads for it everywhere, and the hype machine is ramping up with their new dongle.

I’m a bit of a tech-nut/ geeked-out-spaz, so I’ve often thought about a VOIP service as an alternative to our current almost-monopoly here in Toronto Canada (Bell, now Rogers as well).

I mean $39/ mo with unlimited calling and lots of free extras sure as hell beats our current bill every month (almost double that). But having said that, VOIP isn’t for me — and may not be for you either.

Here are my reasons.

1) 911 service is a bit crippled: Vonage has tricked out its service with a 911 feature — although this clearly has some severe limitations. Namely that the operator cannot physically trace your call unless you stay on the line and tell them. Well, I think we can all think of some emergencies where you might not have that luxury (say, for instance, getting a stroke where your ability to talk has been impaired) to either speak on the phone or grab a cell phone.
2) Dependency on your Internet connection: Assuming you DO have a broadband connection, what happens if your connection goes down? Or if there’s a storm and the power goes out? Hmmm — perhaps that might qualify as an *emergency*? Well, you might be up the creek for two reasons. One is listed in reason one, but the second is that since the power’s out you just won’t have a phone if something happens or your need help.

3) The Buzz-through Line Won’t Work in a Condo: If you live a house, ignore this one. But if you live in a condo or an apartment consider this: to let people into your condo you’ll often have to press a key on your current line when they “buzz” up. Well, most condo’s “call-up” feature is hardwired into the phone cables lining the entire building. If you’re on VOIP there is no way that it can “talk” to your VOIP line. If you’re a hermit this isn’t a problem; but if you like having people over, it might be.

I recognize that it might be feasible if you’re one of those people who only have a cell phone.
Or, just don’t have emergencies.
Or, would like to use Vonage (or its ilk) strictly for long distance calls — let’s face it $40/mo *can* be a bargain (in Canada) if you make enough calls. And the ability to travel around the world with one phone number is kind of cool.

But for me … eh.
I’ll stick to my landline and Skype (free) until I see a real difference to move over completely.
Besides, as Chris Pirillo mentions, if Vonage is anything like Skype, I’ve noticed the same thing he’s kvetching about: When my PC is doing some processor intensive stuff, like downloading, or a virus check, or turning on, or stalling because I have too many tabs open in Firefox, signal quality can suffer in a way that already makes me want to tear out my hair by its glossy raven roots. So I guess that’s reason #4) Dependency on your PC to a degree.