VoIP Gets Praise from Business Users
May 11, 2005 - Crain's Chicago Business
Businesses who've made the jump to Internet-based calling far prefer it to traditional phone service, according to a new survey by J.D. Power and Associates.
Unlike phone service based upon traditional copper phone lines, Voice over Internet Protocol service, (better known as VoIP), converts voice calls into miniscule packets of data that travel over high-speed data lines.
The Internet-based service remains something of a novelty: only 5% of the 5,100 companies who participated in the survey say they were pure VoIP users, says Steve Kirkeby, senior director for telecommunications with J.D. Power, a California-based market research firm.
However, more than one-half of respondents say they will probably or definately begin using VoIP in the next year.
Those who've made the switch to Internet calling rate it higher than users of traditional phone service in every measure of customer satisfaction - "early-adapter phenomenon," Mr. Kirkeby says.
Terrence Barnich, former chairman of the Illinois Commerce Commission, fits that bill.
After recently installing VoIP in the offices of New Paradigm Resources Group, his Chicago-based research and consulting firm, Mr. Barnich says he’s thrilled with features that allow him to forward calls to his cellular phone with a click of a mouse on his computer screen.
“I’m getting a little bit of feedback, and there are latency issues, but I’m willing to live with those because there’s all of this cool stuff going on,” says Mr. Barnich says.
The nationwide telecom survey also found that businesses are less happy with their telephone service than they were in 2004: satisfaction with local telephone service declined 2.6%, while satisfaction with long-distance decreased 3.8%
SBC Communications Inc., the dominant provider of telephone service in Illinois, scored last among major phone companies for its long-distance service and in the middle-of-the-pack for its local telephone service.
Mr. Kirkeby attributes the slide to SBC’s acquisition of AT&T Corp., announced earlier this year: “Uncertainty makes everyone less happy.”
