{"id":79,"date":"2009-09-17T21:53:57","date_gmt":"2009-09-18T01:53:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.medicalalertadvice.com\/?p=79"},"modified":"2022-06-13T13:11:08","modified_gmt":"2022-06-13T17:11:08","slug":"medical-alert-monitoring-voice-over-ip-voip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.medicalalertadvice.com\/articles\/medical-alert-monitoring-voice-over-ip-voip\/","title":{"rendered":"Medical Alert Monitoring & Voice Over IP (VoIP)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Our<\/a>

Our Buyer’s Guide Makes It Easy!<\/p><\/div>\n

What is VOIP?<\/h2>\n

Voice Over Internet Protocol, also known as Voice Over IP or VOIP, is a technology that allows you to use your high-speed internet connection to make telephone calls.\u00a0 VOIP has come a long way over the years, and since 2004, commercial VOIP service really began to grow.<\/p>\n

Big names in the business include companies like Vonage, Xfinity from Comcast, Wow! phone service and CenturyLink to name a few.\u00a0 They work very well these days. So how does VOIP relate to medical alert monitoring systems?\u00a0 Well in short terms – directly.\u00a0 Some medical alert monitoring systems require a telephone line to send its emergency information to the monitoring facility and then provide the speakerphone type communication between the central station operator and your loved one.\u00a0Once you are connected to the monitoring center, you will be able to communicate your medical emergency and help will be on the way.<\/p>\n

How Does VOIP Work?<\/h2>\n

Without getting too technical, your medical alert system acts a lot like a computer dial-up modem or fax machine.\u00a0 It sends a series computer signals over the phone line that are understood by the monitoring center.\u00a0 The basic information tells the central station who you are and what you want.\u00a0 Once it knows these things it allows the operator to start speaking to your loved one.\u00a0There are a few problems with VOIP phone service that can cause no communication or intermittent communication between your medical alert monitoring system and the central monitoring station.<\/p>\n

Since these systems have been used for years on regular telephone lines, they know how to communicate across them.\u00a0 Communication standards also exist so equipment manufactures can be sure their equipment will work properly.\u00a0 Then here comes the internet and voice over IP.\u00a0 Well these services do not follow very strict standards, although managed networks like Comcast and others do provide a more reliable solution.<\/p>\n

It’s kind of like the wild, wild, west. Companies competing for business while inventing better technology along the way.\u00a0 Plus, depending on your internet service provider and your VoIP service provider (they don’t have to be the same) it makes it very difficult for equipment manufactures to make equipment that will be reliable on all networks and with all VOIP carriers.<\/p>\n

Another problem with VOIP is that it requires that the modem for your internet service and the VOIP equipment all to have battery back-up in case of a power failure, otherwise you (or your medical alert monitoring system) could not make a call.\u00a0 Even if you had days’ worth of battery power (not very practical) your internet service provider would have to have battery back-up services all across their network as well.\u00a0 Most of your big providers would have a reasonable amount of back-up, but you may only have up to 24-hours at best.\u00a0 A regular old telephone line would most likely work in this situation although they are becoming more difficult to come by.<\/p>\n

Will VOIP Work For My Medical Alert Device?<\/h2>\n

So, the answer to the question of will it work for my medical alert device is – not reliably<\/em>.\u00a0 It might work sometimes, or even most of the time, but with life-safety involved it really isn’t worth the risk.\u00a0 There are certain scenarios that can increase the chance of more reliable operation, but we don’t want to tempt you.\u00a0 Just keep your plain old telephone line or better yet, purchase a medical alert device that works through your cellular network and does not require a traditional phone line.\u00a0 If your service provider can guarantee that their system will work over VOIP, then go for it.\u00a0 But we can tell you that’s virtually impossible from a technical standpoint.\u00a0 Someday, but not today.<\/p>\n

Also, it’s good to test your system to the monitoring center regularly.\u00a0 Even telephone lines can have problems.\u00a0 Most good companies (like Life Station<\/a>) program this feature automatically into their systems. Read our Medical Guardian reviews<\/a> for even more options.\u00a0 Automatic monthly tests are\u00a0 good, but weekly tests are better (see the equipment section on our compare medical alert<\/a> page or our medical alert system reviews<\/a> for more information).<\/p>\n

The whole point of this system is to make you and your loved one feel more secure and for it to be there when they need it.\u00a0 Don’t take any chances with VOIP technology for your medical alert device system.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What is VOIP? Voice Over Internet Protocol, also known as Voice Over IP or VOIP, is a technology that allows you to use your high-speed internet connection to make telephone calls.\u00a0 VOIP has come a long way over the years, and since 2004, commercial VOIP service really began to grow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":362,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"no","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[49,25,63,85,86],"acf":[],"modified_by":"ArticlesTips","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.medicalalertadvice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.medicalalertadvice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.medicalalertadvice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.medicalalertadvice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.medicalalertadvice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/www.medicalalertadvice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6609,"href":"https:\/\/www.medicalalertadvice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79\/revisions\/6609"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.medicalalertadvice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.medicalalertadvice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.medicalalertadvice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.medicalalertadvice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}