VoIP Priority Alert
Priority Alert allows you to make your phone ring with a different ring based
on your pre-defined criteria. Use this service if you want to know when a
specific person calls such as your manager or spouse.
VoIP Selective Call Forwarding
Selective Call Forwarding allows you to forward specific calls matching
your pre-defined criteria to a different phone number. Use this service to
forward calls from your manager, a family member, or an important
customer to your cell phone, alternate business phone, or home phone.
VoIP Call Groups
Set up a group of callers to whom certain rules always apply. For example,
you can block your calling I.D. to everyone you call except members of the
Group, or use Selective Call Forward for the entire Group so that calls from
them are always routed to your alternate phone number like a cell phone.
VoIP Beyond Voicemail
Some Providers offer you the ability to receive voicemail messages as an
email attachment and play them back as a sound file through your
computer via any of the popular media players. You can even forward the
email with the attachment to another person and they can hear the call too,
or save them to your PC’s hard drive for future reference.

SECTION 3: OTHER VoIP ISSUES
VoIP Power Outages
An issue to be aware of with VoIP is power outages. While normal phones
work fine during blackouts, Internet calling, like cordless phones, needs a
power supply.
Customers may not be able to call their utility to report a power outage, or
reach emergency services for example in the event of an earthquake that
takes down power in your local area.
``I guarantee you in an earthquake like Loma Prieta, a lot of people will be
without phone service if they have VoIP,'' said Regina Costa of The Utility
Reform Network. ``People may scoff and laugh at your little snail-pace dialup
line, but come the Big One, or a two- to three-day power outage, that
phone will still be working.''
One way to resolve this is to get a Universal Power Supply (battery
backup) if you want your VoIP phone to keep working during power
outages.
In order to keep the VoIP line working for as long as possible during a
power outage, only plug small (and necessary) electronic items into your
UPS. The necessary items are your DSL/cable modem, your router, your
VoIP adapter, and your cordless phone.
Do not plug power hogs (anything that generates a lot of heat, like
computer monitors and halogen lights) into the UPS, or else when the
power goes out, the UPS will only last a minute or two.
If you have a home alarm system it is advisable to keep your regular
phone service in case there is a power failure.
With the widespread use of cellular phones today most people see their
cell phone as an emergency backup phone in the event of a power failure.
Remember that in the event of an extended power failure (say 2 to 3 days)
you’ll still need a power source (maybe your car charger) to recharge your
cellular phone.

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