When it comes to the most popular VOIP option, cable VOIP tops the list. However, because of the growth of mobile devices such as smart phones, tablet PCs, and even laptops, mobile VOIP is fast catching up.
It doesn’t come as a surprise therefore if you cannot easily determine which one to pick, just in case you want a VOIP or you’re thinking of upgrading your present setup. To help you, let’s assess each one of them.
Mobile VOIP
The concept of mobile VOIP is fairly new. After all, it hasn’t been a lot of years since the introduction of mobile devices in the market. For you to connect to VOIP, you require an Internet connection, which you can obtain through WIFI or 3G (T-Mobile tablet PCs, however, now offer 4G, which is the fastest).
As its name suggests, the main advantage of this VOIP setup is mobility. It seems like the world is connected either through WIFI or 3G, so Internet isn’t a major issue. Further, plenty of these VOIP apps are downloadable and available for free, including the ever-famous Skype.
Nevertheless, there are a couple of downsides. A number complain about poor audio and video quality. Sometimes they get cut off while in the middle of a conversation, and there are features that can be used at a premium. iCall is free only for United States and Canada numbers.
Cable VOIP
Cable companies are raking millions of dollars not just through their subscriptions but also through offering VOIP. The infrastructure takes advantage of the huge bandwidth of cables; thus, often you’re guaranteed with exceptional quality. Also, there’s no hassle in setting up VOIP since cable providers can already do that for you.
However, cable VOIP doesn’t come for free, even if it’s part of the bundle. Keep in mind that providers also need to spend money on maintaining or upgrading the network.
You may also experience loss of VOIP for not only hours but perhaps days or weeks. This usually happens when there’s outage, and the cable company is down.
Lastly, it doesn’t offer the kind of flexibility mobile VOIP has.
So Which One Is It?
Both are great: mobile VOIP is promising, and cable VOIP is reliable. Hence, your choice depends on what you currently need, how much your budget is, and your expectations.
