Telephones have been the main source of local and long-distance communication for a majority of people, and that too for almost a century. This was the first communication medium that became mainstream in the general public. Although it’s not like this was the only communication medium, many others came before the telephone, and it was a constant evolutionary process that gave us this technology. The earliest form of communication through transmission lines was present way before the telephone in the form of a telegram. This was a piece of equipment through which distinct sounds were produced, these sounds were only of two types.
In order to send a message from one place to another a combination of these two sounds was used called dot and dash. A complete transcript and syntax were made to send messages in dot and dash sounds which were translated in different languages according to the telegram syntax of that particular language. Not only this was a complicated process, but it also needed the expertise of professional telegram operators who were skilled enough to translate these messages quickly and correctly. Telegrams were also slow because each individual letter has to be formulated from these sounds to make a sentence, plus the margin of error was huge since the sounds were only transmitted once.
However, all this changed in 1876 when Alexander Graham Bell made his infamous first call to his friend Watson. A call that revolutionized long-distance communication for humanity because the telephone was a tool that allowed the human voice to be transmitted from one place to another. There were no complicated messaging techniques, no distinct whistles or sounds, no need for any interpretation or decryption, just pure communication between two people in their own language. The importance of this huge milestone can be witnessed in this way that we still use landlines and telephones to this day. Although, there have been modern improvements to it sill the method of communication remains the same.
Speaking of these modern enhancements in the home phone we are going to explain them further below.
Addition of VoIP in Home Phones
As we mentioned before, although home phones are still in use, they have gone through a rigorous evolution process and has improved a lot from its predecessor. The most major improvement in terms of home phones came in the form of the internet. The inclusion of the internet in home phones is through a technology called VoIP or voice over internet protocol. This has made the internet the main backbone of all voice communications conducted on VoIP-powered devices. Many telco giants have switched to this technology and integrated VoIP in their home phones services, Spectrum phone services are also an example of this process which uses VoIP to power all home and business phone services provided through Spectrum.
But the question here is, what is VoIP? As we explained before VoIP stands for voice over internet protocol it is a set of procedures that allows analog voice signals to be converted into digital data packets called bits through which these packets are transmitted over the internet to the receiver’s end. So basically, this is a technology that eliminates standard copper or silver transmission lines to transfer analog voice signals and replaces that with the internet as being the main carrier. VoIP is a service that many computer and mobile applications use to provide voice communication, and now this technology has also been integrated into regular telephones.
Although it is a modern iteration of the standard telephone transmission technique, the important point here is, is it better than a standard landline? This is a question we will try to answer today.
VoIP vs Landline
You have seen a lot of written pieces that compare cell phones and home phones. However, today we have decided to compare the two main technologies of home phones to analyze their pros and cons and see which one is better.
Cost
This is an area where VoIP has made significant improvements because the cost sector was a factor that continuously bugged users, and they resorted to their cell phones because both the traditional landlines and cell phone packages cost the same while the cell phone has portability advantage with it. But, ever since VoIP has started gaining momentum in the home phone industry the cost has gone down by 60 to 70 percent. This is because VoIP is significantly cheaper than traditional landlines as it only requires the internet instead of hardwired cabling and transmission lines.
Plus there is no need for a PBX or public branch exchange in which all landlines are connected, it is used where there are multiple connections like a business. So, VoIP is significantly cheaper not only for businesses but residential customers as well because home users usually get unlimited calling at a fixed price with VoIP. Plus these services mostly come bundled with other services like the internet as a discounted monthly package.
Accessibility & Reliability
In terms of reliability, the landline has a slight edge. This is because there is an existing setup of landline infrastructure in the country which is more than 100 years old, and there is hardly any place in the country without a landline connection. Even in places where users can’t find the internet, the landline is usually present, like in the countryside. So, not only landline is more accessible it is more reliable as well, because it is hardwired, which makes it resistant to external interference and outages. The internet cables are sensitive and get damaged very easily resulting in an internet outage, and a VoIP phone completely depends on the internet. So whenever the internet goes out so do your phone services.
Plus then there is an electricity outage problem as internet-based equipment like modems and VoIP phone sets are electrically powered and require a constant electric connection. So in power outages VoIP home phones shuts down if they don’t have a separate battery pack. While in contrast most landline sets don’t rely on electricity and work on the current passed through landline cable. So they are more reliable and less prone to external interference.
Scalability
Another benefit of VoIP home phones is scalability and limited portability. In hardwired landline phones, you can’t change the location of the phone set because it is impossible to change the landline cable connection in your house without professional help. Because mostly there need to be new phone jacks installed in the place where you want to move the home phone, and the whole wiring needs to be redone to power that single phone jack. While in VoIP, the phone sets are connected with your internet modem, so the most a user has to do is to purchase a longer cable so that their phone set remains connected with their modem when changing its location. Modern VoIP phone sets also have the option for Wifi connectivity so they don’t need any kind of wire and can get internet connectivity through a Wifi router. This also gives a limited portability option which gives users the ability to use and move their home phones anywhere in a closed vicinity, usually a house.
Conclusion
There is no doubt that the inclusion of the internet is improving every existing technology, and similarly is the case with home phones. The modern VoIP sets offer many new options like reduced costs and scalability with features like call blocking, forwarding, and even conference calling, something which was only limited to cellphones before. However, this is also a fact that reliability, voice quality, and ease of access to landlines cannot be undermined. VoIP is a new technology and it still has a long way to take over landline system completely. Both these technologies are far from perfect and it depends on a user which one they want to go with as per their convenience.
