Evaluating the Available Offerings

Now that you've been introduced, it's time to get to know your providers better. In this section, I lay out an evaluation methodology that you can use to select the best provider for your needs. It is a simple decision matrix I like to use when making selections in my line of business. It helps me prioritize important factors and not get lost considering the minor differences of the services or products I am evaluating.

In the following paragraphs, I list several selection criteria for a VoIP service. Prioritize these criteria based on your own needs and use them to evaluate your available service offerings.

Selection criteria

I could name a hundred items that you could take into account when choosing a service provider. "Does it have caller ID?", you may ask. Almost all providers do. So many features are available, in fact, that evaluating the competing services on a feature-by-feature basis is nearly impossible. It is very easy to catch featuritis and get lost in a comparison of (truthfully) inconsequential features.

Criteria such as the availability of local numbers, virtual numbers, and 911 service might be important to you. If so, make sure that they take precedence over the less important features.

Calling Features

There may be one or more calling features you enjoy in your current phone service that you prefer not to live without. If you conference-call a lot, you will want to make sure that three-way or conference calling is available. Voice mail and caller ID are other common features that most users appreciate.

Try not to get caught up in details about features you do not need or will not use. Providers often try to impress by counting their features for you. Look beyond that to the features you will actually use.

Local Number Availability

Some providers may not yet offer numbers in your local calling area. You'll want to make sure that local callers do not incur a toll charge when they call you. If you cannot get a number that is free to your local callers, you might be inclined to evaluate other offerings.

Additional (Virtual) Numbers

Many VoIP providers offer the ability to activate additional numbers in other parts of the world. This allows you to give your friends, family members, or business associates toll-free local phone numbers that ring on your home phones. This is a great way to allow your parents (or children) to call you for free.

911 Availability

Even though the FCC directed VoIP providers to provide Enhanced 911 service in May 2005, some providers have progressed farther than others in this process. Many providers are beginning to partner with incumbent carriers for access to 911 infrastructures in many areas, but much remains to be done. Be sure to check with the companies you evaluate to see where they are in this process.

Using a decision grid to simplify selection

Begin by selecting five to seven features or aspects of VoIP that you consider important to your service. I list a few in the following grid; feel free to add to the list as you become more familiar with these services. If you discover a feature you like in one service and consider it critical to your evaluation, be sure to add it to the list.

Weight each feature by assigning it a number according to its relative importance to you. This allows you to score each service, identifying the combination of features and cost that best fits your needs. Use a grid similar to the one below to record your rankings. Record a score for each provider, multiplying your opinion of the service (on a scale from 1 to 10) by the weight factor. Record the weighted score in the grid. (In the grid below, the weighted score is in parentheses.) Total the weighted score numbers to obtain each provider's total score.

It is easy to see the effect of weighting the features according to their relative importance. If 911 service is most important to you, you would accept Provider 1, even though it might fall behind on local number portability and international rates. Provider 3 also makes a strong showing, simply because it has reasonable 911 service.

By the way, did you notice that codecs and VoIP protocols didn't even come into the discussion? Picking a plan is a very subjective exercise, and the closest the grid comes to codec consideration is call quality. This might change later, when you begin installing and optimizing your service, but for now, it is properly placed in the realm of the propellerheads.

Feature	Weight Factor	Provider 1	Provider 2	Provider 3
Virtual numbers	8	9 (72)	9 (72)	7 (56)
Low international rates	6	8 (48)	8 (48)	6 (36)
911 service	10	10 (100)	0 (0)	8 (80)
Call quality	8	7 (56)	9 (72)	8 (64)
Consumer reputation	7	9 (63)	8 (56)	8 (56)
Local number portability	6	5 (30)	8 (48)	7 (42)
Your addition		Score (weighted score)	Score (weighted score)	Score (weighted score)
Provider totals		369	296	334