Voip.com
Type Private
Founded January 2006 in Boca Raton, Florida
Headquarters Boca Raton, Florida, USA
Industry Communications services
Products Voice over IP
Website www.voip.com
Voip.com is a privately held voip (voice over IP) internet phone service provider, offering residential calling plans to customers throughout the United States. Corporate headquarters are located in Boca Raton, FL, USA. Currently, only residential phone and voicemail service is available, however the company recently announced plans to expand into the commercial business market.
Subscribers can make calls via telephone or computer to any telephone number. For telephone-to-telephone calls, members use a phone adapter, supplied by voip.com. The adapter plugs into their broadband router, enabling them to make calls over a high-speed Internet connection using traditional analog telephones. Voip.com also provides a softphone program, which customers use to connect with other softphone users or dial out to connect with a standard telephone number.Contents [hide]
1 Number availability
2 Porting and portability
3 Voip.com website
4 Fax machines, TiVo recorders, and home alarm systems
5 See also
6 References
7 External links
Number availability
Generally, subscribers to a voip phone service aren’t limited by geography when choosing their primary telephone number, as long as service is available in the area they choose. This means, for instance, that a person living in the 347 area code (New York City) could choose a phone number that’s actually based in Los Angeles. Calls originating from within the 310 (Los Angeles) area code are charged as local calls, even though they ring in New York. Voip.com’s website has a number search that will determine if service is available in your area.
For an additional monthly fee of $4.99, voip.com also offers the option of virtual numbers. Virtual numbers automatically forward incoming calls to the primary number; however callers local to the virtual number aren’t charged long distance, regardless of the primary number’s area code. Another similarly priced add-on is the 800 number option.
Porting and portability
Voip.com accepts number ports from any telephone company in areas where they provide service, however not every telephone company in a service area will release their numbers. Ports are a complicated process, entailing transfer of a number from one company to another through a third party mediator. Each phone company has its own protocol and timeline for conducting transfers, but most can be accomplished within 30 days. Members trying to port their number to a voip.com account can monitor their progress online, through a web-based account manager.
Although voip.com’s service is only open to US residents, subscribers can take their phone adapter anywhere in the world and have it work as if they were still sitting at home[1]. Voip is inherently portable, because it’s “address” resides in an easy to move piece of hardware, instead of terminating at a physical street address.
Voip.com website
The voip.com website provides additional information about VoIP technology by publishing updated voip-related news, daily blog, weekly articles and tips.
Fax machines, TiVo recorders, and home alarm systems
Traditionally, these devices and services were designed to operate in conjunction with an analog phone line[2] and are not expressly supported by voip.com. Current versions of the TiVo operating platform should be able to run correctly with a voip line[3], however compatibility in general is still largely hit and miss.
See also
VoIP
Telephone
References
^ http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/ip-telephony.htm
^ http://www.why-switch-to-voip.com/Fax_and_VoIP.html
^ http://customersupport.tivo.com/LaunchContent.aspx?CID=B321A621-B383-4485-A994-36536CEF265C
4. http://www.compare-voip.net/voip-com.php
5. http://www.voipnow.org/2007/02/top_residential.html
