Do-It-Yourself VoIP Wiring?

VoIP Girl talks about Nextfone as a VoIP choice for Canadians. Out of curiousity, I had a look and came across their how-to page for rewiring your house for VoIP. Seriously? While the general populace may hold technology in the “wow cool” status, it’s my experience that most people are actually technophobes. Especially if they have to do something themselves – especially electrical work and most especially when the first paragraph of the instructions indicates that rewiring their home improperly could cause a fire. While that’s good they warn you, how many potential customers do they lose at this point? I would hate to think of old grannies trying to rewire their homes.

Services like Nextfone, unfortunately, are not a solution for me, as I haven’t had a landline in about a decade. I’m a nomadic sort, and while I live in homes and apartments that have traditional phone wiring, I no longer use them. At times, other people I live with might, though. So even if I were brave enough to try rewiring (and that ’s even with a few high school electrical classes under my belt), I wouldn’t bother, given my circumstances.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. This is no dig on Nextfone, but people do want simplicity and transparency in their technology. They are only interested in functionality, not how to get there. Having to rewire your home to get VoIP service is a show-stopper for more people than not. On the other, someone even geekier than me might enjoy this do-it-yourself project.