VOICE OVER THE INTERNET PROTOCOL RATINGS (VOIP): A DETAILED REVIEW
VOIP has taken the world by storm after the creation of a company named Skype. By far, they have the best deal going. Free. That’s right. Once you download the software, you can call anyone in the world that also has the software on their computer and pay absolutely nothing. It’s hard to beat free.
However, there are a couple of things to keep in mind. The first is that Skype is not the same thing as the service offered by your broadband company. The general population has been educated to believe that VOIP is a one size fits all technology. In reality there are a few major differences that need to be explained. The VOIP phrase refers to the capability of allowing users of the service to make and receive calls using standard telephone equipment (whether their computers are on or off), for a monthly fee that starts at $20 and up for domestic calls.
Skype on the other hand is a VoIP Peer to Peer (P2P), which requires you to make and receive calls through your computer which means the computer must be powered on in order to make phone calls. You can of course use special equipment, but that is beyond the scope of this article.
At the http://www.cyberneticoffice.com/, we use Skype on a regular basis. When talking with international clients, it is hard to beet free. But, as Skype continues to expand across the globe, there have been some serious contenders that have entered the ring. We will discuss the them in detail below:
Phone Power is one of the fastest growing VoIP companies in the country. We know why. Besides their very aggressive pricing, we found their customer support to be excellent and extremely responsive. We placed several calls to their customer service and the calls were answered quickly and courteously with USA based employees.
One of our favorite Phone Power offers is the monthly unlimited calling which is only $14.95 per month for 24 months. It offers unlimited inbound and outbound calls in the USA and Canada. One of the best parts of this offer is that there is no activation fee which we really like. All VoIP companies require an Internet phone adapter to use with your broadband Internet connection. Phone Power gives this to you for free, but you need to pay the shipping & handling of $14.95.
In addition, they offer a free "cloned" line which allows you and another member of your household to have 2 completely separate outgoing calls at the same time even though you will only have 1 phone number. For those who only want a month to month plan, you can receive a $19.95 per month plan with no commitment.
eVOICE
If you've always wanted to have a professional business phone system like the big boys and girls, then perhaps you should take a look at eVoice Receptionist. It's a high level virtual office phone system giving you all the essentials the professionals use at an affordable price. At only $29.95 per month it's a fraction of what you would pay for a traditional system; add a free 6 month trial to try it out; it's a no brainer!
Thank you for reading our post. If you have had any good or bad experiences with any VOIP provider, by all means post it.