Over the last 10 years, telephone users have become accustomed to the consistency provided by traditional telephone systems.  VOIP has changed things a little.

Thinking of purchasing a VOIP (Voice-over IP) Phone service such as Vonage, Roger's Home Phone or Bell Home Phone?  VOIP services originate calls from an internet connection and transfer your voice over the internet, rather than over traditional phone lines.  VOIP provides advantages such as bundled cost savings and potentially* discounted long distance.

Beware of the following risks associated with VOIP Phone Services.

Power Outages
Don't expect your VOIP Phone to work during a power outage.  Your plain old telephone line did, but VOIP relies upon an active internet connection which needs its own power source.

Call Quality
VOIP networks have to potential to have the same call quality as a traditional phone line:  Unfortunately, VOIP data is carried transfered through a pipeline with other sorts of data.  When a lot of data is carried down through the pipe, it can cause your call quality to degrade because of lagging delivery and data backlogs.  This is akin to your browser loading webpages slower while you are downloading a large email attachment.

Premature Call Termination
 If spikes data traffic, increased VOIP traffic or a system glitch causes a spike in overall traffic, your call may not only degrade in quality, but may be terminated due to bandwidth issues.

Hacking VOIP Systems
Your voice calls are being transferred through the internet.  Attackers can obtain data packets containing your speech, flood the VOIP provider with call termination requests and even inject data (such as other sounds) into calls made by you.  Ensure that your VOIP provider has adequate security.

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*a VOIP service provider can route calls very cheaply, these savings may not be passed on to the consumer.