Reliability
Conventional phones are connected
directly to telephone company phone lines, which in the event
of a power failure are kept functioning by back-up generators
or batteries located at the telephone exchange. However, household VoIP hardware uses broadband modems and other equipment powered
by household electricity, which may be subject to outages dictating
the use of an uninterruptible power supply or generator to ensure
availability during power outages. Early adopters of VoIP may
also be users of other phone equipment, such as PBX and cordless
phone bases, that rely on power not provided by the telephone
company. Even with local power still available, the broadband
carrier itself may experience outages as well. While the PSTN
has been matured over decades and is typically extremely reliable,
most broadband networks are less than 10 years old, and even the
best are still subject to intermittent outages. See call control.
Furthermore, consumer network technologies such as cable and DSL
often are not subject to the same restoration service levels as
the PSTN or business technologies such as T-1 connection.