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As with most technologies, early VoIP technical challenges have largely been overcome at this point. For some consumers, however, the perception still lingers that VoIP is a bleeding-edge technology that should not be trusted.

If the VoIP provider is not reputable, the technology still could suffer from issues such as poor call quality or connectivity issues; as with any service, there are credible providers and those that deliver poor results. Reputable VoIP providers bring massive value without the issues that used to plague the technology, however.

Voice quality was one of the original complaints with VoIP. Since it used the public Internet, and early proponents were rolling out the technology before it was firmly supported by the right architecture, many of us do remember that first Skype (News - Alert) call with dropped words and poor quality.

This old issue with VoIP voice quality has not only been resolved by better softswitches and dedicated network paths, it actually has been turned into a strength. Unlike traditional phone systems, VoIP now can offer HD-voice much as modern televisions deliver exceptional picture quality with HD quality. While Skype and free consumer options can still sometimes sacrifice voice quality in the name of cost, paid VoIP options can often deliver much higher quality than traditional phone lines.

Another issue with VoIP has been the soft cost of using the technology. VoIP has always offered cheaper calling, but when it first came out there was the soft cost of maintaining the hardware to run it.

Cloud-based VoIP has eliminated this issue, however. Now businesses and residential customers alike can let providers take care of the hardware and software maintenance, leaving the soft cost to others. Just like any cloud-service, VoIP now can be a turnkey affair that’s easy and doesn’t require maintenance.

At the same time that VoIP has resolved some of its early issues, it also has added to its value proposition with the rise of mobile calling and telecommute work.

We all work from the road now, even if this is just answering email and important calls after work on our way home. We do it with our smartphones and tablets usually.

And while it would seem that smartphones have made obsolete the need for things like VoIP, the opposite actually is true—unlike a cell phone or landline, VoIP is flexible enough to work from mobile, from home, from the office—anywhere that Internet connectivity exists. VoIP is the perfect companion to our increasingly mobile world.

So businesses and consumers who are stilly weary of VoIP should reconsider their opinion and give the technology another look.