If you are in the VoIP business, August has been a month you would rather forget.
First off, SunRocket, with over 200,000 customers/passengers disintegrated in flight leaving a trail of angry, disconnected customers.
If the SunRocket catastrophe was not enough, Skype’s VoIP service ceased working for two days. Initally the blame went to Microsoft for its Windows Update Service that triggered a near simultaneous reboot of millions of computers worldwide. With all these computers signing off, then back on to Skype’s service at nearly the same instant, it was learned that a portion of the software code (an algorithm) prevented Skype’s peer to peer (P2P) VoIP network from regaining it’s balance/connectivity.
Sorry folks, no terrorist plot, cyber wars or sinister plots by your local phone companies.
So, what have we learned from all this - we have learned that VoIP is not as dependable as your old landline phone company, but we knew this all along. The good thing about VoIP is that it is very economical to have and comes with a package of features that your local phone company can only drool over. The downside is if you phone service is mission critical to you at home or your business, you should have at least a stripped down “Plan B” landline.
That said, I run pure VoIP here at my office, and have for nearly two years - never had a problem - it has been bullet proof - but I recognize that is not guaranteed, so I keep my mostly reliable cell phone charged.