AOL hops on the VoIP bandwagon with new phone service designed for its heaviest users
seattletimes.nwsource.com .html
By Mike Langberg
Knight Ridder Newspapers
You've got voice mail!"
Yes, that slow-moving behemoth America Online has jumped into the new world of online phone calls.
AOL Internet Phone Service, introduced April 7, is exactly what you'd expect: not the best bargain or the most sophisticated set of features, but carefully designed to appeal to heavy AOL users.
AOL Internet Phone Service, or IPS, stands out only because it has such a big captive audience among AOL's 22 million U.S. subscribers. More information on IPS is available on the Web (www.aol.com/product/voip.adp) or at AOL keyword Internet Phone Service.
Service is available in most big metropolitan areas, including Seattle.
There are four IPS options, the first three of which require an existing AOL account:
AOL sends IPS subscribers a small box, a telephone adapter, from Linksys or a wireless router with a built-in telephone adapter from Netgear. You can plug any regular corded or cordless phone into the adapter to make and receive calls.
There's a $5 hardware charge, which AOL is waiving for now.
There's also a shipping fee of $9.95, and a $50 penalty if you cancel IPS within the first six months.
One final gotcha: All subscribers are charged $30 upfront as a reserve for extra charges, such as international calls.
You either get a new phone number in your area code, or — in most of the country — have the option of transferring your current home number.
AOL has made arrangements in many areas for 911 calls from IPS to display the caller's home address, crucial in an emergency. However, you need to know that, unlike conventional phones, no VoIP service works during a power failure.
If that's a concern, I recommend using VoIP only for a second home-phone line, or keeping a cellphone handy for emergency calls during blackouts.
I tried IPS in my home office and found it easy to set up, following a clearly worded quick-start guide, in about 20 minutes. If you've already got a home router, the telephone adapter plugs into any available port.
If you don't have a router, the adapter is connected between your cable or DSL modem and your computer.
In several hours of IPS calls spread over several days, audio quality was excellent.
When you're signed on to AOL, you can open up an IPS "Dashboard" page that shows a log of recent incoming and outgoing calls, displays names and numbers from your AOL address book and flashes an alert on the screen for incoming calls.
The alert shows Caller ID info and gives you the option of sending the call directly to voice mail.
You can also listen to voice-mail messages online or opt to have the messages sent to you as sound files attached to e-mail.
On the coming-soon list for IPS is a very convenient VoIP feature: simultaneous ring, which AOL will call "Find Me." You designate a list of phone numbers that all ring when a call comes to your VoIP number.
I've been using AT&T CallVantage in my home office for six months, and calls to that number also ring my cellphone and my office phone, so I get important calls wherever I am.
I would recommend IPS to current AOL subscribers with broadband. |
