Voice over Internet protocol can be an attractive way to reduce a firm’s telecommunications costs, and there are other efficiencies, but is it right for your office? That’s the question posed by Nerino J. Petro Jr., writingfor the Wisconsin Lawyer journal.

Hey, law firms are no different from you and me, they want to cut costs and improve efficiency, too -- except when they’re billing it out a client, of course, but that’s a different article.

But telecommunication expenses can be one of the major overhead items for law firms, Petro writes, adding that “with the expansion of broadband Internet throughout Wisconsin, Internet- based telecommunications has moved from a rarity to a reality in many areas and may come from nontraditional sources such as cable television providers.”

Petro runs over some of the advantages and drawbacks of VoIP, for law firms and other businesses. Advantages:

VoIP transforms standard telephone capabilities into another streaming Internet service, which will revolutionize the way telephone calls are made and the features offered. VoIP calls also avoid much of the regulatory structure of the existing telephone industry because of their digital nature: VoIP telephone calls bypass much of the traditional telephone network when calling a phone number and if calling another computer, bypass traditional phone networks and traditional fees entirely.

VoIP phone providers generally offer additional services such as call waiting, three-way calling, caller ID, and call transfer and forwarding as part of their standard packages.

Many residential and SOHO (small office home office) VoIP plans include unlimited local and long-distance calling for a flat monthly fee and avoid charges associated with traditional phone services.

A user with a notebook computer and a headset can make phone calls using a softphone (a software program for dialing and connecting calls) wherever he or she can connect to a wireless hotspot.

Some of the disadvantages:

VoIP requires a high-quality and reliable broadband Internet connection. If you want to be able to surf the Internet and use VoIP services, you may encounter difficulties with slower broadband connections and experience loss of phone quality as a result of dropped telephone-call data packets.

Because VoIP is dependent on the Internet, when the Internet goes out or slows down, you will either be unable to make VoIP phone calls or the quality of the call will diminish.

Unlike traditional telephones, which are self powered (their power is provided by the switching equipment of the phone network), VoIP depends on an outside power source. If you experience an electrical outage and do not have a battery backup to power your computer, Internet modem, and ATA device, you will be unable to place telephone calls.

VoIP calls made on softphones can suffer a loss of quality because of older or slower processors and not enough memory.