I would perfrom some due diligence/research on the firms that you choose to identify in your articles, that is, would like to be sold VoIP service without E-911 service (broadvoice).

I agree for the most part but I think you are missing a few crucial elements for SMB VoIP to work well. Here are 10 questions to ask your potential VoIP provider.

10 hard questions to ask your potential business VoIP provider

1. How do you deliver and ensure Quality of Service (QoS)?
• Make sure the provider you are considering place QoS as a top priority. Bad reception and dropped calls might be acceptable in cellular networks but that will not fly in the office.

2. When my IP connection from my office to your network goes down what is your back-up plan to ensure dial-tone?
• Connectivity failover is a major concern when using the Internet to deliver dial tone. Make sure you understand the risk associated with the provider’s offering, especially if the service is delivered on the same broadband connection your offices uses for email, web research etc.

3. What happens if your main point of presence (POP) loses connectivity?
• A good network will be built with geographical redundancy in-mind. If connectivity is lost at the service provider’s major point of presence all telephone traffic will immediately be redirected to another facility.

4. What happens when I dial 911?
• The provider must deliver 911 services. You may never need it but when you do you will want to reach for the nearest phone not having to think about if it supports 911. This is also a legal requirement of VoIP service providers.

5. How do you ensure privacy and security?
• Generally speaking it would probably be easier today for a criminal to physically break into the office and listen to the conversation than tap into the media connection taking place on your IP link. The same applies to identity theft. With this in mind encryption and strict authentication may not be so important to the smaller businesses today. It might be a larger concern for medium businesses especially those who have heavy restrictions on communications, like financial institutions for example.

6. What type of VoIP service are you delivering, hosted VoIP or IP trunking?
• Traditionally hosted VoIP means you have little if any equipment on site to worry about, aside from the handsets themselves. IP trunking implies there will be an actual phone system on site and the provider may simply be replacing the traditional line from the phone company with an IP link. Hosted VoIP is generally less-painful to set up and leaves near all the heavy lifting on the provider side.

7. Does the network utilize Open Standards and more specifically SIP (Session Initiation Protocol)?
• This question can sometimes lead to an open standard versus proprietary technology religious debate. The one thing to keep in mind is that SIP is today’s de-facto standard in the world of VoIP. SIP allows the network to interoperate with many devices using the same protocol from other vendors. As a user on a SIP network you will ultimately have far more choices in terms of handsets and devices than the users on networks built on proprietary technology.

8. Will I receive all the features I enjoy now and what other features can I look forward to?
• Many people assume that VoIP is superior in every way to traditional voice, in some cases providers will baffle you with lower costs but deliver fewer features. You should be able to attain both lower monthly operating costs and more features.

9. What is the length of the contract I am expected to sign?
• Much like cellular providers and traditional business phone system integrators, VoIP operators will try and bundle service and hardware costs into a lengthy agreements. It can mean less cost up front but it might be a good idea to make sure the provider is also bound to some sort of Service Level Agreement or SLA. If you have to cancel because of the shoddy service you should not be penalized for it.

10. When will my new VoIP phone service be installed and ready to use?
• Sounds pretty straight forward, right? Wrong. It can get very complicated when switching business telephone service from your telephone company to a VoIP provider. Local Number Portability or LNP is causing all sorts of headaches for SMBs all across the nation. In most cases these issues can all be overcome but it’s best to be realistic about the timelines.