I know a little about VoIP because I part-time manage 6 Asterisk servers and 3 CDR aggregators. These systems are involved in telephony arbitrage which I understand from the outside but not as an insider. Let’s just say that from the outside looking in it’s meant to be obtuse.

So it seemed natural to me to want to reduce my phone bill and still have all the comfort features and functions that I get from the local telco. I do not really want to manage my own asterisk server inside the house. I might want to use my analog phones. And I definitely need to maintain the same QOS as I get with the other guy.

That when I found a reddit post that caught my attention and eventually got me looking at PlugPBX. This is a great idea once you get past some of the networking issues and the need for an analog connection to the local phone, however, if you’re willing to install IP phones around the house or SIP capable wireless phones, this will be a game changer.

With the advent of wireless HDMI and other wireless technologies we are going to get to the point where the entire home will be wireless.

So this brought be full circle to VoIP phones and if I’m going to deploy a PBX then I need a service provider… and while I’m at it, why not a SIP phone application for my iPhone. A SIP phone application is also known as a soft phone.

I hate to say it’s confusing because it’s not. It’s just a serious challenge going through all the different service providers trying to determine what the features are what the final cost is going to be. Some are domestic and some international. Some offer unlimited rates and some do not; and then there are the other misc features like voice to email. I still do not have a answer or recommendation.

So I pushed that quest back a little and started looking at SIP phones for the iPhone. There were hundred of them. Not very many of them had more than 10 or 15 ratings and all hovered at around 3 stars. Average.

So while I think the PBX is going to make it’s way into the home or at least the last mile and the future of the wireless home. The status of the softphone is still wide open.

PS: I have plenty of GEN-Y’ers that only use cell phones. Which is starting to look like a good idea to me.