The Flat Planet and a Phone !

While I have limited sympathy for Sunrocket’s customers, who signed up for an offer that sounded too good to be true (and turned out to be)- I do not envy those who relied on Sunrocket as their only landline or those who published it as their business number.

Alec’s post about compulsory insurance such as the banks have made we think, how can we prevent a Sunrocket rerun? It really is not too complicated. However insurance such as what Alec suggests would not solve the problem which is immediate loss of connectivity.

The best solution would be a failover system. First of all, VoiP providers would be required to provide a ATA with at least 2 fxs ports. Not a problem most do. Port 2 would be provisioned to a 3rd party public server that would allow emergency and toll free calls. This server could be operated by a trade association for example. So even if the primary provider goes down you can still call out. Allowing toll free calls would give access to calling card services, solving immediate needs.

Incoming calls though a little more complicated can also be solved. If a VoIP provider ceased service the phone number provider (say Level3) would be required to automatically (based on network failure?) switch incoming calls to a standby voicemail system (manufacturers like Varicom can provide them very cheaply). This server would have voicemail to email functionality so the customer could access them either via email/the web or an access number. Most important - you will not miss important calls!

VoIP is here with us to stay and as an industry we need to show that we can be reliable. If we don’t - goodbye independent VoiP providers.

UPDATE -  A number of suggestions have come in, how to enhance the ideas expressed above. If you have any ideas, please send them in, since we are contemplating  putting out a proposal.