Men are from VoIP and Women are from PSTN

April 17, 2006
Men are from VoIP and Women are from PSTN - at least according to Preston Gralla over at Networking Pipeline who quotes a recent HarrisInteractive survey about VoIP awareness. (great metaphor Preston!)

Preston writes that according to the survey, "Men are more aware of VoIP than women by about a two-to-one margin. And, one would assume, from those numbers, they're much more likely to use VoIP as well."

Of course, my theory is that once women find out they can talk more for less using VoIP I'm sure they'll catch up to the men. Though there is one significant hole in my theory. My wife has been using Vonage for the past 3 years with me and she complains at every little Vonage hiccup, every little "fast busy" when dialing, every little Internet outage that brings down the phone line. She used to complain about the sound quality on the VoIP connection all the time, but she has gotten better. Or perhaps she's resigned to the fact that I'm never going back to PSTN.

Me? I'm like "Hey, sounds great to me. I never have any problems when I'm making a call using Vonage. Sure, when the power goes off or the Internet connection dies, we lose our phone, but hey, we're saving a ton of money each month. And it's a cool technology to boot. Plus I write about this stuff all day long, so I should practice what I preach."

I don't think she bought it.

When there are sound quality issues (robotic sounding, voice cutoffs) it always happens she she is on the phone. It's only happened to me once in all the time I've had Vonage. My theory is that computers and VoIP equipment are female and therefore they act up out of jealousy any time a female is using it since they prefer nerdy men - often their creators. But what do I know? It could be that she just uses the phone more and I'm just lucky when I use the phone.

I think most women could care less how much money they save if they can't guarantee near 100% uptime for their phone to make and receive calls.

In fact, a new phenomenon has begun in the era of VoIP - instead of blaming the phone company for any phone outage, wives/girlfriends now blame their significant other. "Why did you cancel our landline! I was perfectly happy with it! It's your fault you cheap bastard!"

I bet at least 10 male readers reading this that switched to VoIP and ditched their landline have experienced this.

Or am I just being sexist?

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» Time to dump Vonage from VoIP & Gadgets Blog
I never thought I would say this, but "that's it, I've had it with Vonage!" Let me tell you about my woes with Vonage lately. First, let me say that my wife has periodically complained about Vonage having voice quality... [More]

Tracked on May 19, 2006 12:15 PM

Comments to Men are from VoIP and Women are from PSTN


  1. michael :
    April 17, 2006 8:17 PM

    I can relate to quality issues only happening when she is on the phone. But my wife is also looking forward to being rid of bellsouth soon.


  1. Collin Rountree :
    April 17, 2006 8:37 PM

    You are not the only one. My wife complains about it every chance she gets. Her mother who lives in Brasil complains about it too because it will disconnect them. Nevermind the fact they can pick up and call each other all day long every day if they wanted to (and they often do). I told her if she wants to pay the bill for those calls, she is welcome to, and it usually quiets them down.

    I have my wife using a macintosh and iWeb to publish our website of our daughter for our friends and family, and she comes up with the strangest problems in it that I can never reproduce, so I think their may be something to your theory about equipment being female. I never have these issues, and she has them on a daily basis.


  1. /mek :
    April 17, 2006 9:18 PM

    I think you made a small typo there; it should have read "10 out of 10 male readers"...


  1. skibare :
    April 18, 2006 8:57 AM

    Funniest POST ever on VOIP!!!! I will COPY to my blog======thanks for the Laughs and the reality of a WOMAN is always right and a MAN is always a cheap bastard when the FREE PHONE does not work...........funny how they LOVE the ability to call all day long and NOT have to pay anymore per minute but the second COMCAST drops the internet (and their call), its all MY FAULT for having switched..........I then just hand her the cellphone and say ''''its Alright'''' and the calls continue..........Skibare


  1. Brenda Keener :
    April 19, 2006 1:29 PM

    No way!! Most women I know are very happy about the thought of being able to talk as long as they want without worrying about the bill. I was the one who brought VoIP to our household while my husband still kept trying to plug the Uniden base station into the RJ-11 plug instead of the ATA box! My daughter also loves it, as we don't nag her to get off the phone.

    Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that I have been in the VoIP industry since 1999 .........but I do talk to other women here in the Silicon Valley who work in real estate, etc. They are equally enthused about the idea of one bill for unlimited service.

    A few glitches here and there? One look at your phone bill and you feel all better!

    Maybe it is because our phone bills in California were outrageous before the advent of VoIP?


  1. Tom Keating[TypeKey Profile Page] :
    April 19, 2006 2:09 PM

    Brenda,
    Glad to hear not all women are from Venus. Mars would be very lonely otherwise.big grin


  1. Brenda Keener :
    April 19, 2006 7:04 PM

    Your darned right it would be!

    I would love to see this study redone with a different demographic profile. Did the author take a "real" cross section of the American population? Or did he shy away from areas where intelligent women tend to congregate - being yet another male who runs and hides at the mere thought of a woman with a brain in her head?

    I would bet my beautiful combined 802.11g Gateway/router that if this test were conducted in the Silicon Valley, or Boston, or Austin Texas - the results would be quite different.


  1. Sheri Morita :
    April 20, 2006 6:50 PM

    Well, given that in our household *I* was the one who ordered in the VoIP line (the very same day it first became available thank you very much) I'd say you are being a wee bit sexist.

    I don't, however, have to listen to complaints about the lost land line, as we didn't have one to begin with (mobile phones are a wonderful thing). I get to listen to my husband gripe about QoS, the lack thereof, and why IP is not really meant to carry anything that is sensitive to latency and jitter...


  1. Sue :
    April 24, 2006 4:04 PM

    My DH emailed me the link to your blog, I am not a regular reader. But I need to write to tell your wife she is not alone. DH swtiched us to VOIP end of last year, and I have been complaining ever since. He uses our home phone about 10 minutes each week, so for him, price is important. I use our home phone at least 4 times a day, sometimes 20. For me, it's a politeness issue. The people I am speaking with have mostly never even heard of VOIP, and they expect a phone to work, all the time. I get cut off for no apparent reason, I sound like a robot, they can't each me. I seem like a flake to the other women who still have the luxury of reliable PSTN!

    SO I end up using my cell phone more often - so that bill is run up
    instead!

    Wife of a techie


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