A week ago, Vonage announced that its services, complete with a 304 area code, would be made available throughout the state. With more than 2 million subscribers nationwide, the company claims to be the No. 1 Internet phone service provider in the United States.
In the Eastern Panhandle, however, consumers have had the option of subscribing to SunRocket, the No. 2 Internet phone service provider boasting about 160,000 customers nationwide, for more than a year.
Both companies utilize Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), which the Federal Communications Commission describes as a technology that converts a speaker’s voice into a digital signal that travels over the Internet. That signal, if being sent to a traditional landline extension, is then converted back to a regular telephone signal before it reaches its destination.
Calls using VoIP can be made directly from a computer, a special VoIP phone or a traditional phone connected to a special adapter, the FCC states.
