With so many companies offering voice-over IP “deals”, the task of
whittling your choices down to even a top ten is daunting. However, the good
news is that with so many broadband phone companies competing for your
attention, pricing and packaging of services is competitive.
And here we've created a handy checklist to help you decide which type of
VOIP broadband service is right for you.
Checklist for Choosing a VOIP Provider
I want to call mostly friends and family
BUT I don't want to worry about computer programs and password
stuff.
If you just want to pick up
the phone and dial the way you normally do, or if you AND who call you most often aren't computer savvy—like
grandparents, for instance—then a VOIP
long distance plan is for you. If you're making mostly social calls
(200 minutes/month or less), then a limited VOIP long distance plan
is perfect. You can phone local and long for a fixed rate per
month. You'll find that 200 minutes goes a long way. (The average
number of phone minutes per month per household is around 100.)
I want to call mostly friends and family. I
don't mind using my computer to make calls BUT they do.
If you're into saving money on long distance calls
to friends and family and don't mind using your computer to do it,
an unlimited Softphone package is a great idea. The people you're
calling don't have to be on their computer. They just answer the
phone like normal. But you make and receive calls from a
program that stores your contacts for you and has a point-and-click
keypad for dialing.
I want to call mostly friends and family
using the computer.
If you send and
receive exchange email with friends and family regularly, then
chances are they've got enough computer savvy to use a
VOIP softphone. When both of you use the same softphone, the call is
free. But make sure they have high speed internet, not dial-up. VOIP
works best with broadband cable or DSL (the "always on" internet). Try one of the free VOIP services
and invite your friends to join too.
I just want a cheap long distance plan and
one phone bill each month
If you
want to simplify...one phone bill for both local and long distance
and low rates for international...try a subscriber VOIP service. An
unlimited long distance plan can be paid monthly for under $20. You
can also pay yearly for the best deal overall. You get lots of free
calling features too, like voicemail, forwarding, caller ID,
conference calling, and call waiting.
I want to make it easy and CHEAP for people
to call me long distance.
What if you have family or business clients in
another state or another country? Staying in touch with them is
important, right? You can make it easy for them, and cheap too, by
getting a VOIP plan that gives you virtual numbers in any
destination you want. When they call you, they dial a local number
and pay for just the cost of a local call (which could even be free
depending on where they are).
If you have an order desk, let your customers call
you on a toll free number. Most VOIP unlimited long distance plans
allow you to add on a toll free number for around $5/month,
considerably less than what the phone company charges.
I want to look like I have a offices in
different parts of the country.
Most VOIP service providers
offer a package deal which includes free calls to a certain geographical
area. For example, if you make a lot of overseas calls you want a package
that includes these calls in the basic monthly fee.
If you receive most of
your calls from a certain geographic area or city, try to find a service
provider that offers a PSTN phone number in that location. This will allow
people to call you at local rates.
I want a guarantee of service and reliability.
While VOIP is here to stay, there are still
occasional setbacks. Service outages can occur, and during power
blackouts, you won't have phone service because VOIP relies on access
to the internet.
Good news that there is even a VOIP product on the
market that takes away this headache for you.
PhoneGnome is the only
broadband internet phone product that actually detects when it
should use the internet and when it should use the regular phone line.
So, when the
power is out, you can make and receive calls on your regular phone.
I want a VOIP service that works with my existing Internet connection.
VOIP services work best when your internet connection
is cable or DSL, sometimes called broadband or highspeed internet.
Dialup connections are too slow.
Find out how much bandwidth is required for a particular provider’s
service. Here's link to Voip.com's
bandwidth speed test.
In general 90 kbps download speed or better is and 128 kbps upload
speed is the minimum bandwidth required for VOIP.
I want to be able to make 911 calls if necessary.
Make sure the VOIP company you choose supports Enhanced 911 (E911).
E911 is a way that VOIP providers route your 911 call to the nearest
Public Safety Access Point (PSAP) and provide your name, phone
number and the home address associated with your account.
By law, companies that provide VOIP internet
telephone services MUST disclose to you if they will be routing
personal information for 911 calls or not. Skype, for example,
discloses that it does not support any emergency calls to any type
of hospitals, law enforcement agencies, medical care unit or any
type of emergency services of any kind.
If you want to make 911 calls if necessary,
but still want the low cost advantages of internet phone, you can
have the best of both worlds with
PhoneGnome. PhoneGnome is a unique
device that lets you dial 911 over the regular phone line, bypassing
the internet all together.
Basically, THIS site considers a VOIP provider to be company offering broadband
internet phone services to consumers at home or small businesses. Customers make and receive phone calls
over the Internet instead of using the regular phone lines.
Providers can be divisions of big telephone companies (Verizon and Shaw), cable
companies (Comcast), IM telephony (Google, AOL and Yahoo), and PC-to-PC/phone telephony
(Skype, Gizmo Project,
SightSpeed).
A softphone is telephone program for your computer. You install it on
your PC or Mac and it lets you make calls by dialing an onscreen keypad.
Usually you can import contact names and numbers from Outlook or other email
applications.
Free softphones don't charge you for downloading the software or for
making calls to other registered users. Skype is a great example, but you
can only make free calls to other Skype users. Gizmo Project is another
popular softphone that lets you make free calls to Gizmo users AND users on
other networks (MSN, Jabber, GoogleTalk)
Web phone is dialing from an actual web page.
Make a Call from Voip.com
is a good example. You enter your telephone number in My Number and the
number your calling in Call this number. The VOIP software first rings your
phone, when you pickup, it connects you with the other number.
How do you pay? You just buy credits to call landlines or call other web phone
users for free. You can try it for free as well with a 12-cent credit (about
a 6-minute call).
Pay-As-You-Go
Pay-as-you-go services are usually softphone companies that let you buy
credits for calling outside their network. In other words, for making calls
to regular phones, mobile phones, and international numbers.
Rates for pay-as-you-go are EXTREMELY low, and you'll find that $10 to
$20 worth of credit lasts a long time. Only 2 cents/minute anywhere in the
US and Canada.
Subscriber services are just calling plans. You subscribe to a certain
plan, and receive unlimited or restricted minutes per month. The benefit to
you is you get the same phone bill each month, and it includes both local
and long distance calling.
Dozens of calling features are at your disposal as well, including
voicemail, caller ID, and call forwarding. There's no way you'd pay for all
of these services with a regular phone company.
If you like to use the computer to make calls, but you want the freedom
to call any mobile or landline phone anywhere, the monthly subscriber
softphone service is what you need.
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