The Bottom Line Comparison Of VOIP Service Providers
There is a lot of competition in the VOIP service market today where it seems like almost everyone is offering VOIP service for your home. You see the ads on TV, you get flyers with your Mastercard statements every month, and it is hard to tell which ones are real and which are simply marketing hype. How can you tell which is the real deal?
First and foremost, you must understand that most VOIP services really do work as they claim, but the long pole in the tent is the stability and reliability of your high speed Internet connection. Since this connection is used to make and receive phone calls on your VOIP phone, if that connection is not reliable and stable, there is not a VOIP carrier anywhere that can provide what you would consider good service, and it is not the VOIP carrier's fault. Don't even consider VOIP if your high speed Internet connection is satellite, because that was never designed to work with VOIP and you will be sorely disappointed.
So assuming you have a great high speed Internet connection at your home that is both reliable and stable, how can you decide which VOIP service is best? Unfortunately a decision cannot be made by looking at the set of features included, since the feature set is pretty much the same with all the major carriers, which would include caller ID, voicemail, call waiting, three way calling, and unlimited local and long distance calling within the continental United States. When it comes down to it, what else do you really need?
Ok, so looking at the feature set did not help us narrow our choices, so now let's look at the cost. Now things start to get interesting. The one doing the most commercial advertising, Vonage, costs $24.99 per month. That stands to reason, and their customers are subsidizing their advertising expenditures. Other popular brands like Packet8 and Earthlink VOIP also charge $24.99 per month. Charter and Comcast, two popular ISP's both charge $29.99 per month for their VOIP service.
You need to be aware of our Editor's Choice Top Pick and Best Pick option for the best VOIP service offering. The cost is $19.99 per month and they provide even more features than the ones mentioned above, since they also include unlimited calling to both Canada and Puerto Rico as well as within continental US. Additionally if you wish to save even more, you have the option to pay for a year upfront, which brings the monthly cost down to less than $17.00 per month.
They do not advertise at Best Buy or Fry's Electronics and do not include flyers with your Visa statements. But then again, they are not asking you to pay extra for the VOIP service to cover the cost of their advertising expenses like the others do.
If you are going to switch to VOIP for your residential phone, you need to factor this VOIP provider into your equation. It just does not good economic sense to pay more for a service than you need to, especially when you have such a cost effective option.
Article Source: http://www.search-raven.com
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