Is Cable Telephone Service the Same As VoIP?

Cable telephone service allows you to connect a standard telephone to a cable telephone modem and dial calls as you would for a conventional telephone service. VoIP by itself just allows you to send voice signals over the Internet. The VoIP software encodes your voice and you can connect to anyone else who has the same software, using your computer. To use VoIP the same way as conventional telephone service, you need a VoIP interconnected telephone service provider to supply the link to the standard telephone network. This company will provide an adapter that connects to the Internet and to a standard telephone.

Cable telephone service is linked to a cable that's situated at a particular physical address known to the cable company. The cable company informs emergency service providers of the location and address so they will know where a 911 call originates and the address to which they must send the emergency vehicles. VoIP services can be accessed from any Internet connection and the service has no particular physical location. It's up to you to advise the telephone service provider of the address where you're using the service. The telephone service provider will advise emergency services.

Conventional land line telephone service transmits the power to ring the telephone and complete the call through the telephone wire. Telephones that don't require outside power for additional functions will still work during a power failure. The cable used for cable telephone service can't transmit power, but many cable companies will supply cable telephone modems with batteries that will allow telephone operation during power failures lasting several hours. VoIP telephone service relies on the Internet connection through a modem and possibly a router. VoIP service may also require that your computer is in operation. The computer, router and modem generally don't have battery backup unless you've specifically installed it. Most VoIP services therefore don't operate during a power failure.

Cable telephone service and VoIP both rely on digital signals to transmit calls while conventional telephone service is based on analog signals. Additional services for analog signals are costly and the telephone company charges extra for message systems, caller ID, call forwarding and similar features. The same services are inexpensive to implement for digital signals. Cable and VoIP telephone service companies generally include a wide variety of such features in the basic package without additional cost.