What are some of the downsides of VoIP – Part 1
Nobody in their right mind really goes looking for a long distance relationship, do they? But a number of us can attest that it does happen. Even before technology shortened the distance gap for us, continental romance existed thanks to wars, international job transfers, student foreign exchange and many other situations, I’m sure. But thanks to a number of available communication mediums these days, there are simply more options available to aid you in finding and keeping your one true love. More Americans today can say they know at least one person on another continent thanks to the Internet and dating websites are getting more and more popular. While the Public Switched Telephone Network is making their own advancements in communication technology, another type of voice communication has been made available and is pushing the competitive envelope with regular phone companies. It is called VoIP or Voice over Internet Protocol. With unlimited service offerings that include free international calls, these companies look really attractive to people involved with long distance romance. If you’ve met your soul mate in Australia and you live in the US, you can only go so far with instant messaging before you’ll want to talk and get all mushy-gushy on the telephone, right? Hold the phone. Before you run off half-cocked and sign up for Premium Unlimited service, you should read the fine print.
In my own experience, I signed up for one of the major VoIP companies because I was in dire need of a cost efficient solution to my international long distance romance. I won’t tell you their name, but they rhyme with Vonage. With their cool commercials featuring music by the 5678’s and offering unlimited domestic and international calls for $30 a month, there had to be a catch. They say love is blind, but so is a man about to score; I didn’t stop to read the details and I signed up. And it was great. It was the love affair that I’d been missing… crisp and clear communications with minimal interruptions… it really was fantastic. I signed up for a feature that gave me a virtual number in England, which meant that my girl could call me using a local number. I took advantage of their advanced call forwarding feature, SimulRing, which allowed me to have up to five phone numbers ring simultaneously whenever she called. My international love and I were talking about writing one fantastic letter to the company thanking them for helping us stay connected but
Bundles Gone Wild: Phone Companies Exposed
You’ve probably seen the ad on television, “phone TV DSL”, offered by SBC Global. Is it a good deal? Compared to services offered by traditional telephone service providers in the past, yes. Compared to what you could get by doing some research yourself, no.
While SBC advertises bundled telephone, DSL, and satellite TV service for around $75.00 a month, you knew there had to be a catch didn’t you? The catch being the advertised price is not the end price. You’ll also be bound to a contract.
Did you know you could be getting a much better deal on those services if you just do your homework? About an hour doing the research could save you a big hunk of money every month. Sure, you’ll have to pay separate bills, but with the money saved, it’s worth it.
Let me give you an example. You are probably looking for phone, TV, and DSL services. Let’s discuss the promotional rate and the end price on each of these services. Keep in mind, these examples will reflect basic packages with no add on’s.
Satellite TV from dish network will cost you about $19.99 a month for three months then go up to $31.99 plus $5.00 for DVR service in two rooms. Movie channel packages range from $12.00 to $40.00 a month. The end basic package price with 2 DVR’s is $36.99
DSL or Cable broadband Internet from both ComCast and Earth Link will be around $19.99 to $29.99 for the first three to six months, depending on your service area. In most cases It will be $19.99 a month for the first six months then go to around $45.00 regular rate.
Broadband telephone service or VoIP from Vonage is about $15.00 a month for unlimited local calling plus 800 long distance minutes a month. Now, don’t fall over, but this is not a promotional rate. This is the regular rate for basic service with Vonage.
So what we have now is phone, TV, and high speed broadband Internet for about $55.00 a month for the first few months, that’s $20.00 a month cheaper than SBC. In the end, you’ll be paying less than $100.00 a month for the services just mentioned.
So the next time you are looking for a good deal on bundled packages, keep in mind you’ll save a whole lot more if you just take the time to bundle your own services and spend an extra five minutes each month paying your bills separately. That’s an hour a year folks.
How To Maximize Use Of VoIP For Your Home Business
If you are running a home business, you can use VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) services to provide many benefits. VoIP is known to be significantly less expensive than the traditional telephone long distance packages, but this is only one advantage of using VoIP.
While there are other options, you can choose to use your regular home phone to take advantage of VoIP technology. This can be done by using a VoIP telephone adapter to connect your phone to the internet via a high speed modem. VoIP technology allows internet users with high speed (broadband) access to place telephone calls over the internet.
There are many VoIP service providers with whom one can sign up for a calling plan.
As VoIP rides on the internet technology, there are many features that are now possible as compared to the traditional phone. Many traditional phone features that come at an extra charge are also provided free with the basic calling plan.
1. Cheaper Than Traditional Phones
Using VoIP is a cheaper option if you make a lot of long distance and international calls. This is possible as the call uses the same internet facility as you do for your web access and email.
Upon signing up for a calling plan with a service provider, the VoIP telephone adapter will typically be provided free.
All calls between people using the same service provider are free regardless of location. This alone can provide significant savings if your business associates use the same service providers.
There are many features that come free with the calling plan. Some of these features are:
- call waiting
- caller ID
- three-way calling
- call forwarding
- last number redial
- speed dial
- voicemail
2. Allows Mobility
When traveling, you can take the VoIP adapter with you and instantly turn a phone anywhere in the world into your local phone. This will require a high speed internet connection.
This is possible as the VoIP adapter is specially coded with your VoIP phone number.
With the VoIP Physical Portability feature, you can still receive your customers’ phone calls while traveling on business matters, on holiday or moving home.
3. Establishing Business Offices At Multiple Locations
VoIP Virtual Numbers allow multiple inbound telephone access numbers in different cities. With this feature, it is possible to establish your business in multiple locations by creating a “Virtual Presence” using virtual numbers.
These virtual numbers can be routed to any number that you specify. If you lived in Chicago, you can have access numbers in New York, Houston and San Francisco all routing through to your number in Chicago.
With this feature, business addresses can be established in different cities and even countries. You can set up these virtual numbers based on the locations from where you expect to receive many phone calls. This could be your existent customers or your prospects.
Besides enhancing the image of your business, customers get the benefit of calling a local number which is less costly for them.
Most service providers who offer this feature charge about $5 per month for each additional access number. This makes it possible to establish business offices at multiple locations at a low cost.
4. Enhanced Voice Mail
Some service providers offer you the ability to receive voice mail messages as an email attachment. You can play them back as a sound file through your computer.
As a home business owner, you can also save these voice mails to your computer’s hard drive for future reference. You can also forward this to another person if follow up action is required.
5. Selecting A VoIP Service Provider
Your choice of the VoIP service provider and the calling plan depends on your unique needs.
Depending on your business needs, you can select calling plans for local/long distance or international calls. International calls can be made with local/long distance plans but at an additional per minute rate. International plans typically include USA local and long distance coverage.
First decide on the features you require to manage your home business. Then match these against the features available. Resist buying based on the number of features provided by the service provider.
Independent surveys show that most of the established VoIP carriers are about the same in terms of voice quality. Good customer service is also an important criteria for selecting your service provider. Read customer reviews on these aspects to help you choose the service provider.
There are service providers that include a “Money Back Guarantee”. Check against your service quality criteria, once you have initiated the service. Cancel the service and request for your money back if you are not happy with the results. Make sure you do this within the “trial” period allocated.
For a month-to-month plan, your service is automatically renewable each month, until you cancel the service. So, you have the option of canceling. Some annual plans allow you to cancel on a month-to-month basis, but watch out for the extra charges you may incur if you cancel. Check out all these details before you sign up.
How to start a virtual assisting business
Simply put, a virtual assistant is anyone who provides administrative or clerical support to a business virtually, from a remote location. For a person who has administrative or clerical experience this can be the ideal home business with minimal overhead and unlimited flexibility. There are a few questions that you need to ask yourself before deciding to start your own virtual assistance business.
1. Do I have the necessary skills?
It is important to decide which services you will provide and to make sure that you can perform those services with little or no input from your client. When a client contracts for your services they will expect to be able to give you instructions for completion of the project and then simply collect the finished material at an agreed upon time. If you don’t have formal training or job experience in the area that you offer support it may pay to get certified or take a formal training course. My local community college offers computer training courses for less than a hundred dollars each, and allows students to apply credits earned toward degrees and certificates. Microsoft has a software certification program, for a fee; and my local library offer free training in many popular software titles. Check out local resources first as these are often less expensive options.
2. Do I have the necessary equipment?
If you are going to offer desktop publishing to your clients you will need to have the appropriate software and hardware to produce the publication, likewise if you offer to do telemarketing/customer service calls you will most likely need a headset and a separate phone line to keep track of the calls that you make. If your employer allows it you can look into a low cost internet phone service like Skype, or, if you have broadband, a VoIP service like Vonage. With rates as low as $2.50 per month for unlimited calling you can keep your overhead low while maintaining a separate business line. These lines can also be used anywhere you have high speed internet access.
3. Do I have adequate time?
Keep in mind that this is a business and you need to treat it like one. If you have small children you will need to ensure that you have time to complete your work while they are napping or at school. If a client hears a child in the background while they are talking to you they may reconsider hiring you for a position which includes telephone work. Clients may also grow uncomfortable if they have difficulty reaching you, it may be best to set “office hours”, similar to those used by college professors, or give a timeframe for returning all calls/emails. You will also be responsible for managing your own tax payments and benefits so you will need to allow for the time spent on basic business tasks for yourself.
You may also want to look up general information on running a home based business. The Small Business Administration has a website with great resources for all entrepreneurs. http://www.sba.gov/
Are You Ready For Voip?
Are You Ready For An Internet Phone That Uses Voip?
With an internet phone system you can make phone calls over the Internet and save a bundle of cash! All you need is a broadband internet connection, any standard touch-tone corded or cordless phone, and a VoIP provider like industry-favorite Vonage.
Why can you make cheap phone calls on the Internet?
Because you are not using government regulated lines for the transmission of your conversations, your VoIP carrier will not be charged surcharges and regulation fees like traditional phone companies are charged. Your traditional carrier adds those surcharges and fees to your phone bill in addition to whatever service plan you have. Vonage and other VoIP providers can transmit your telephones calls for less money, so they pass those savings along to you.
Does lower cost mean lower voice quality?
Not if you use a first-class VoIP provider like Vonage. There are a lot of VoIP startups that try to cut corners and lower their expenses by using inferior equipment and yesterday’s technology. That’s why it’s important to choose an Internet telephone service provider with millions of installed users and a profitable infrastructure.
Will I sacrifice features if I switch to VoIP?
Jut the opposite is true, actually. Companies like Vonage provide more features than nearly any traditional telephone service provider, and 99% of those features are available at no additional costs above your low monthly service plan.
Vonage VoIP offers all of the normal teleco features like call waiting, call forwarding, caller id, call return (*69), Voicemail and more, but they also offer enhanced services such as receiving your voicemail messages as e-mail attachments, and an amazing feature called virtual phone numbers.
Virtual phone numbers allow you to establish local telephone numbers nearly anywhere in the world and have all of the calls directed to your main number. What a great way to make your business look bigger than it is or to give far away friends and family the ability to call you without paying long distance charges.
There’s no reason to stay with outdated landlines when you can switch to VoIP and get more for less.
The Cost Will Be $44.95 a Month, Plus Your Civil Rights
How many times have you been watching a movie, and just said “Where’s their cellphone?”. Let’s face it, you really are experiencing a suspension of disbelief if you think that between five, running, scared adults there exists not a single cellie. What’s the last thing you check before you head out into the big, bad, world? You check to see if the phone is in your purse, on your hip, or in your wallet. We’re Pavlovian beings, even obsessive in this respect.
How did we get to this point in history? The cell phone started out as all inventions do: Science fiction. Good old conjecture. Then it moved to the next stage, as a luxury for the super-rich. A scarce toy with poor service for early adopters. These ultra-wealthy then started buying these for their businesses, partly as a way to get things done in a quicker manner, and partly to keep up with the Jones’.
By the time this invention trickled down to the middle class, the marketing of the product and buying criteria had changed from luxury to safety. “Would you want your mother stranded on a dark road with a broken down car? Buy one.” The marketing moved from there, to convenience, with broader business adoption. It then became the toy of rich children, and the point of contact for millions of harried soccer moms nationwide.
Now, we are looking at something that is a necessity for communication, in any form. Pay-phones are now a novelty. Many of us don’t even have home phones to make a call on anymore. With the massive adoption of the broadband internet, and the availability of email and information on-command data, why would we waste $25 to keep a landline?
In the wake of this technology explosion, privacy concerns are taking a backseat. We have come to a point in time where anonyminity and privacy are, for all intensive purposes, dead. We have sacrificed our personal lives for convenience, and most of us don’t even know it. We are walking around with a GPS, with a backup locator in our pockets. This came about through innocent means.
Triangulation was the first way that 911 was able to locate us in the event of an emergency. Using 3 cell towers, they were able to isolate our signal, and depending on the strength of it, isolate our position to a matter of 500 feet of search area. This has saved some lives, but it has also served as a cover for far more sinister activity: Tracking us. Now, to that, we’ve added GPS. This was filed under “convenience”. “Never get lost again”, was the marvelous claim that this was marketed under. Now, instead of 500 feet, we can be tracked within a matter of inches.
New concerns are surfacing, as Google releases their new Android powered series of phones. What exactly are those concerns? For starters, Google has come under fire for the way the store and utilize the search and history data of their users. With the further merging of phone and internet by the release of this phone, privacy is on the verge of being obliterated completely.
The argument goes like this: Between the phone companies and Google, any government or entity could access both the public and private digital communications of a user, in violation of the 5th amendment, search and seizure laws, and any law on the books. If a user cedes their rights to a private entity, and hidden in the user’s agreement, a loophole for turnover of that data to a government or marketing entity exists, then the 5th amendment is negated, and you are on the hook.
We will all laugh, as the first wave of “stupid” criminals is caught using this method. We will express concern when something that is a little more in the gray area passes by, say a mother buying alcohol for her son, and a few friends. By the time they start taking on regular citizens, it will be too late, either because we love the convenience too much, or we are powerless to stop it.
How will it work? Currently, Google is lobbying the FCC for permission to use “white space” in the broadcasting spectrum for universally free internet access. There has been some mention of free voice plans, should you grant Google the ability to run ads on your phone. While creating huge revenue for Google, you would also have to provide demographic information to Google. At best, it will be used for a razor-sharp, targeted marketing campain. At worst, it could make you the target of a wrongful investigation by the US government. Who cares? It’s free internet access! Once again, intrusion masquerading as convenience.
I’m not saying Google would be complicit in this, but they are considered a trusted source. Who are more people going to believe in the event of crime? Someone who provides them with reasonably reliable information on a daily basis, or someone who just walked into a courtroom off the street. What if someone finds a way to manipulate Google? People will laugh, and innocents will go to jail based on trumped up charges.
Am I just a crackpot, living in my basement, who wears a tin-foil hat? Nope. I drink aspartame, fluoridated water, and hold my cell-phone close to my ear. I use Google for darn near everything, because resistance is futile. This is how things really are, and to not say so at this juncture is comparable to selling out the human race.
We are headed towards a surveillance society, if Great Britain is any harbinger of what is yet to be. We need to recognize this, and take whatever precautions we can to delay it as much as possible. There is a gradual encroachment on basic liberties taking place, and it is taking place with our consent.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to take a call.
VoIP Calls: Now More Beneficial With Several Plans
Terminating voice calls with VoIP network has always remained incredible. But it is left to the users on how they comprehend the latest services. A lot is dependent on the various plans offered by the service providers. Accessing the Internet is a must for data transmission. The Internet brings the VoIP technology to a global platform. Thus, international VoIP calls can be made easily at very low call cost.
The users can choose from monthly and yearly plans. With low and convenient payment options, the users can make international calls to any country of the world. Calling through VoIP is so simple that one can connect instantly with distant end users and remain connected with them for any period of time. The charges are less and the services are effective. The voice quality too remains very prominent and the users can clearly listen to the voice of the end users. Generally it is found that the VoIP calls with unlimited call plan offer the lowest rates when it comes to making international calls. Thus, it is necessary for the users to keep themselves updated with the plans of VoIP service providers. By doing so, one can actually avail the VoIP services at the lowest possible rates.
The call termination services in case of VoIP is very cheap as compared to the traditional phone services. In fact, calls over the internet, have steadily gained momentum as there are various benefits with these services. The benefits of these services are drawing several companies to switch to VoIP termination services as these are great ways to reduce the costs involved in making calls. By adopting this technology, many companies have successfully cut down the telephone bills by over 40 to 60 percent. So, this packet switching technology facilitates the users with VoIP call termination services while the additional charges as in traditional networks are easily eliminated. Thus, Calling through VoIP actually enables people to participate in an unified scheme meant for communication. With this system, the users can comfortably send and receive images, data and video clips among a number of other end users.
The USP for call over the internet service lies in the fact that it supports business establishments to enhance production of the business organisations. This is because it helps to unify the various structures of communication between the various branches of the same organisation. VoIP also provides latest termination services to organisations to interconnect between their various corporate offices.
VoIP assists business entrepreneurs and general users in a number of ways:
1. With the aid of the unlimited calling service, one can make unlimited calls at very cheap call rates.
2. This cost effective service offers long distance as well as international calls at cheap rates unknown with the traditional PSTN services.
3. This form of telephony can be easily accessed from the IP phones, laptops and traditional fixed line phones. So, it is completely hassle free.
4. The VoIP phone can be carried anywhere in the world and the users can still remain connected. What is required is a trustworthy provider so that people can avail these services with complete ease.
The benefits offered by Voice over IP have drawn people to it. Now, it is very common to see the VoIP phones reaching new homes. It is no longer just limited to the business organisations. Moreover, the emergence of resellers have helped to further increase the reach of this technology. Now, people in remote areas of the world have already started to abandon their traditional phones. This is because the resellers of VoIP have reached these localities and have started to offer their own services.
Driving Factors to Upgrade Your PBX System
Your PBX system has served you well in the past and with a bit of upkeep and maintenance will continue to meet your needs in the future. However change is on the horizon.
How SIP Works
Have you ever wondered why long distance calls cost so much? In part the reason is because telephone lines cost so much. When driving, you might occasionally see a telephone crew maintaining a telephone line, but what you may have never considered is that there are literally thousands of individuals working around the clock to maintain our telephone lines.
The telephony system works via a cog and wheel setup. What this means is that every long distance call you make is routed along a telephone wire to a central station, where your voice is routed to another central station, which is finally carried to the person with whom you are trying to communicate. For the call to be maintained, the entire time you are speaking, a space along all the lines in between you and the person you are talking with must be completely devoted to you. Because millions of people are talking at the same time, the little space along the telephone lines becomes rather desired property. And like all things desired, the price is high. Before recent innovations, however, there were no alternatives, so everyone grudgingly paid the often costly long-distance telephone bill.
SIP, or Session Initiation Protocol, has turned the telephony world upside down. Specifically, SIP refers to a protocol that allows computers to talk to each other without going through a central station. Practically, what that means for you and me is that it is no longer necessary to pay for expensive telephone lines to complete our calls. SIP technology is a relatively new development in which calls are made on a peer-to-peer rather than cog and wheel network. What that means, is that you are now able to call people directly from your SIP enabled phone to theirs. This ends up being radically cheaper than the old way of calling.
The SIP system does not require a central computer and operators like the old telephony system did. Rather, your computer, or SIP enabled phone, does all the routing for you.
SIP has been around for a number of years, but only recently has it begun to go mainstream and take off in popularity. This quick increase in interest over SIP is due to companies like Mobalex, who were aware of the fact that over the generations we have come to expect certain tones, buttons, and protocols from our phones. So what they have done is to transpose those functions onto the SIP system. Rather than forcing users to communicate in a completely new way, what these companies have done is to provide a calling experience which from the user’s perspective is completely identical to traditional telephony.
SIP is typically offered in two formats, computer based and hardware based. Computer based SIP is a system that allows you to make calls using your computer as the router and communicating via a headset on your computer. The more practical and popular version, however, actually provides you with new SIP enabled telephone handsets or converts your existing phones to SIP. By eliminating any technical requirements, modern SIP providers have made using the system as easy, or easier, than using a traditional phone. I say easier, because many companies are able to take advantage of the fact that the system is internet based to provide you with some very unique benefits. These include the ability to adjust your plan, change your calling options, and even pay your bill from the same website.
SIP technology is quite revolutionary in the world of communication. By creating a peer-to-peer network, SIP has been able to radically undercut the prices of traditional telephony, take advantage of the Internet, and still maintain the ease of traditional telephony. It is merely a matter of time before we are all using SIP for all of our telephoning needs.
Alternatives to phone cards and traditional long
Alternatives to the Outdated phone card -
When calling long-distance for any reason, the minutes can kill anyone’s monthly payment. Most people probably use prepaid phones as a way to get past the bill but I have a few better ways that won’t break the bank. The first thing to do is examin your needs, if your just calling family then a simple pre-paid phone could be perfect. But it your constantly calling long-distance, then a Voip phone could be perfect for you. Voip phones are built different because they connect through a Lan line instead of a phone line, companys like vonage and skype provide you with a number and most of these places have free long-distance.
Buying a voip phone is relatively easy, and now a days they can be had for around $20 dollars. Alternatively you don’t even need a voip phone because you can use a headset with most computers, add a webcam and you can video conference for less then normal phone services. Voip is great no matter which way you look at it because you get unlimited long-distance for half the price, plus if your a dial up user you can talk and surf at the same time. Voip is the future of phone users and you can get on the bandwagon, which is becoming a appealing market.
