While email is a great technology, it is messaging technology that truly leverages the power of the Internet. Chatting has become very common means of communication. Today, more than ever, people use chat clients to connect with their colleagues, friends, and relatives. Chat clients allow users to communicate with others through text messages, and digital emotions among other things. But one thing that was missing from chat clients was the ability to talk to others while typing text messages. While it is useful to be able to type messages to other users, the need for vocal communication was not completely satisfied by chat clients. This created the need for VoIP Internet phone services.
Companies gradually came to realize that many chatters were looking for voice chat features in their chat clients. At first, it was difficult and expensive for chat service providers to integrate voice chat features into their chat clients. But that all changed when VoIP Internet phone services came around. VoIP, which makes use of the Internet to move voice packets over the networks, allows companies to provide voice chat service for their customers for much lower prices. Integrating VoIP Internet phone services into IM clients not only provides a huge saving in costs for providers and users, it also saves users a lot of time and increases their productivity.
Large companies such as eBay and Google have witnessed VoIPs potential, and they have integrated VoIP into their chat clients. Microsoft was playing catch up in this market, but they have also decided to include VoIP service with their latest version of Windows Messenger Live product.
The challenge for users of both chat software and online VoIP Internet phone technology remains that both parties must be at their computers to utilize this service. However, companies, such as Pingo, have now been able to integrate VoIP Internet phone technology and its low cost structure into prepaid calling programs. While these products are not free, as with chat software, they are extremely inexpensive. With Pingo, an American can call China for just 1.8 cents per minute. This is much less than they used to pay to write that letter, and they can now connect instantaneously, even from their mobile phone for this rate! This works simply because companies such as Pingo have developed the technology to inexpensively connect local phone calls to the Internet, route the calls via VoIP, and terminate them again with a local phone carrier at the point of termination.
So now, with prepaid services such as Pingo, you can take advantage of the low cost of VoIP Internet phone connection, from your land or mobile phones, to call international destinations for just pennies per minute.
Voice-over Internet protocol (VoIP) services are certainly becoming more and more popular and for the most part it's because they are a quality alternative to traditional landline and cell phone based calling plans. I'm no prophet but the future of the technology and how people make phone calls is definitely pointing towards VoIP.
As is the case with most new technologies trying to decipher through all the hype and claims is a daunting task indeed and with companies popping up left and right to grab their share of this ever increasing pie, it gets more challenging by the day.
So what do you do? Well, on the positive side, virtually all of these new web-based phone services (VoIP) are packed with features, including unlimited local and long-distance calls and yet, they cost less than most traditional plans. Another plus is how simple they are to set up. Most simply require that you plug your regular phone into an adapter connected to your computer.
Of course, what is and what isn't essential in any plan is debatable but a few "essentials" you may want to consider when choosing which VoIP provider to go with are outlined below.
Connection Compatibility
One of the few VoIP requirements is a high speed connection but with the ever expanding reach of broadband into all parts of the country access to a high speed connection is no longer restricted to just the major metropolitan areas. That being said, all high speed connections don't provide enough performance to handle IP calls, so before you start researching different service plans you should take a look at Test Your VoIP (
http://www.testyourvoip.com) to see if your connection is up to snuff. The test is free and it should take less than 30 seconds.
Assess Your Calling Needs
You need to ask yourself a few questions before you go out and select a provider because if you don't know what you're looking for it's pretty difficult to find it. A few questions you should consider are: What do you want most out of your phone provider? Are you looking to just cut costs?
A basic plan that offers a bunch of long-distance minutes is extremely inexpensive and if that's all you care about perhaps that's the route you should take. On the other hand, if you want business flexibility you should consider a small business package that costs more, but adds services like conferencing, a separate fax line, even an 800 number.
Want to take it on the road? Vonage (
http://www.vonage.com) and others offer "soft phone" services, which let you make and receive calls on your PC. Another option to consider is where you place the most calls. If you make a ton of international calls, you might want to consider one of the smaller players like Lingo (
http://www.lingo.com), Broadvoice (
http://www.broadvoice.com) or CingUCel (
http://www.cingucell.com) that offer unlimited dialing to select countries. Another nice VoIP feature is that most providers treat calls to Canada as domestic long distance. Determine where you call the most and then match the most appropriate service to your needs.
Feature Comparison
Virtually all VoIP service packages will exceed the minimal call waiting and voice mail bundles of traditional phone services. One example, CallVantage (
http://www.usa.att.com/callvantage/index.jsp?) from AT&T may cost a bit more than some but it includes a useful call forwarding capability that will try to find you by ringing up to five different phone numbers when you aren't home.
You'll have to decide after shopping around whether you feel comfortable going with one of the smaller startups or if you should stick with one of the big players. With the big players you'll usually pay $5 or $10 more per month more for the "peace of mind" of a well-known brand name like AT&T or Vonage (
http://www.vonage.com) which are currently the two largest VoIP providers in the market.
Verizon VoiceWing (
http://www22.verizon.com) is fairly new to this ever increasing niche but with its merger with MCI it operates under one of the biggest brands in the telephony world. Once again, it's clearly up to you and your comfort level but if a service has fewer than 100,000 subscribers, you may want to look closely before jumping in.
Cold Turkey
Like all new technology VoIP continues to improve and the result is better call quality and service levels but switching cold turkey may not be the best idea. With many providers offering 30-day money back guarantees (always read the terms carefully) you can test the waters and ease into the transition. Initially, you may want to consider switching to VoIP on a second line and then, if you're happy, make the full transition.
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MrRenoma
Bestoffer
