Think Twice About VoIP
Earlier this month, BusinessWeek ran a review of Comcast's Digital Voice service. The company, like the rest of the cable industry, is looking at VoIP as its next big thing.
The review is essentially positive, which no doubt made the operator happy. The better news for the operator--and the rest of the cable industry, for that matter--is that the review appeared at all.
Mentions in consumer and business press are a signal that a new technology has entered the mainstream. Clearly, Internet telephony has. In addition to aggressive rollouts by Comcast and other cable players, Vonage has growing profile and Skype recently was bought by eBay.
The question that small businesses must begin to grapple with is if VoIP is the way to go. It's easy to get swept up in the hoopla surrounding a new technology. But businessmen and women need to ask themselves serious questions before they get on the VoIP train. Indeed, the worst thing they could do is reflectively jump on the bandwagon, since nothing--absolutely nothing--is as important to a business as its phone capabilities. It's not even close.
