VoIP Overview ~ Internet Telephony Grows Up

There was a time, not so long ago, when the local telephone companies held us consumers 'captive' by charging high prices for phone service. Since we had no viable alternative, they knew that they could nickel and dime us to death for add-on features like voicemail, call waiting, caller ID, and call forwarding.

Those days are over - and Good Riddance! Now we have an alternative – it's called Voice over Internet Protocol, or just "VoIP".

This is a technology that allows you to make phone calls over an existing internet connection instead of a regular (analog) phone line. Some VoIP services only allow us to call other people who are using the same service, usually done when making PC to PC phone calls.

Other services allow us to call anyone, anywhere, provided they have a telephone number. Those services include local & long distance, mobile phones and international numbers. Most often these types of VoIP service allow you to use your regular phone, plugged directly into an adapter.

One of the best things about VoIP is that all the additional features are included in the monthly fee... not added on later in some bogus 'Package Deal' that you end up paying extra for.

The different VoIP services do vary in detail, but generally speaking they all offer unlimited local & long distance calls into the US & Canada, international calls, voicemail, last call return, call waiting, caller id, three-way calls and all the other features that we expect from our phone companies.

The difference is that they don't charge extra for those features! Your average VoIP service typically charges between $20 and $25 dollars a month.... compare that to your regular phone service and you can easily see the cost benefits.

It's time to show the phone companies that they don't own us. Switch to VoIP today and start saving tomorrow! To learn more about the different VoIP services, visit our Service Providers pages.