subject: How Reliable Is The Internet For Home Communications? [print this page] With the dawn of the 21st century upon us it certainly seems that we are moving into what can only be described as the digital era. It seems that the world is developing at a rapid rate and new and innovative digital technology is a large contributing factor. Digital mediums are quickly revolutionising many aspects of our daily life from the way that we choose to communicate socially to how we achieve exposure for a businesses. Probably the most powerful digital tool at our disposal is the Internet; indeed, nowadays you can make video calls to the other side of the world at no cost to you.
In recent years it seems that an increasing number of people are catching on to just how economical and effective a tool the Internet is for communication, and as a result there are now a number of different ways that people can communicate with one another via the Internet, whether its through email, social networking sites, or Skype. Furthermore, many telephone companies are also following this trend and developing products and packages that allow people to communicate via the Internet. So as to tae advantage of cheap call rates many households are now trading their original phone lines for a VoIP Internet line, this allows the users to make a call the same that they would if they were using a regular phone line, however it uses the Internet connection.
VoIP phones can be set up anywhere where there is an Internet connection and they allow the user to make cheap calls to anywhere in the world, however there are some downsides to having a VoIP phone line. If your household doesnt have a very strong Internet connection then you may find that the quality of the calls is not matched by what a regular phone line has to offer. Furthermore you are completely dependant on your Internet connection, should it fail then you will not be able to make or receive any calls.
Another potential issue that could be presented by using your Internet for communication is that of security. Mobile phones have always carried with them the risk of being hacked and unfortunately the Internet doesnt offer too much more security, so be sure that you never disclose any personal details online otherwise you will be leaving yourself vulnerable to fraud. In particular smart phones that make use of cellular networks and Internet connections are known to be in a high-risk category. So despite the potential for communication offered by the net there are still a number of underlying issues meaning it might be some time before all communication is done via the Internet.
