Introducing VoIP

Are you tired of the high fees you pay your telephone company? VoIP, or Voice Over Internet Protocol, offers an inexpensive alternative to traditional telephones. By using your broad band internet connection, VoIP helps you save money, especially for long distance calls.

As VoIP gets more popular, more companies are beginning to offer this service to its customers. Some think that VoIP will replace the traditional telephone system. To help you make the switch, here is a list of VoIP service providers and some general information about what they have to offer.

Verizon VoiceWing - Their plans start at $19.95 a month for 500 calling minutes to the United States, Puerto Rico, and Canada. If you already have Verizon DSL, they offer a discount on their unlimited plan ($29.95 instead of $34.95). (https://www22.verizon.com/ForYourhome/voip/voiphome.aspx)

Comcast Di gital Voice - They have both national and international calling options. If you use Comcast for any other services, you are eligible for their discounted rates. If you have Comcast Cable and High Speed Internet, Digital Voice is an extra $39.95. (http://www.comcast.com/Benefits/VoiceBenefits.ashx)

Lingo - This seems to be one of the best services. They offer your first month for free. Plans start at $19.95 for both national and international calling. Their basic service starts at $7.95 a month. (http://www.lingo.com) Vonage - Prices start at $14.99 for their basic service and $24.99 for their unlimited service. Long distance calling rates are listed on their site, as they change depending on the country. (http://www.vonage.com)

Earthlink - Even Earthlink has begun offering VoIP service. TrueVoice offers home internet phone for rates starting at $14.95 a month. If you also use Earthlink for your DSL connection, yo u are eligible for their package deal. Also check out Vling- a free software download called Vling which allows you to talk with other Vling users for free. (http://www.earthlink.net/voice/dslhomephone/)

Mike Bell is the webmaster of http://www.VoIP-Journal.com, a site devoted to providing users with VoIP news and information.

VoIP Communication: Technology Helps Your Business

Communication has come a long way from the time of smoke signals. What was new yesterday is considered required today. Technology advances are fast and furious and to keep ahead in the business world you must advance along with it, or risk missing out on the new moon.

The speed and effectiveness of your communication infrastructure is vital in today's marketplace, where clients expect instant results. In addition, your ability to virtualize your office is key in a decentralized and mobile environment. Assisting your customers and making them feel serviced is vital in a world where price comparisons can be retrieved in an instant. Service will set you apart. This is where advanced communication technology can help.

The following is an example of how Life Communications LLC assisted a business improve their communications effectiveness, work product and bottom line. Saran Importers Inc. (name has been changed) is an importer of many products, including clothing, undergarments and electronics. They have small offices in California, Michigan and Texas with their headquarters in Brooklyn, NY. The Michigan and Texas offices have two salesmen per location, while the California office has three operations people and one salesman. The Brooklyn headquarters has 10 operations people and three salesmen. For the sake of simplicity, the definition of "operations people" is people who don't travel extensively, while salesmen do.

They had a Lucent Partner system in Brooklyn and small SOHO (Small Office Home Office) Panasonic multi-phones in the remote locations. They communicated with the remote locations by calling them over a regular phone line and with the salesman by office number or cell phones, which they also gave to the clients. Some problems arose from this arrangement. The following are a sample:

- High cost of inter-office communications.

- Multiple places for voice-mail. Hard to manage.

- If the cell phone was dead or otherwise not available the calls went to voicemail or were lost.

- If a salesman was unavailable for extended periods (more than one day) it affected communications with clients.

- No call accounting. No management of remote offices.

Life Communications replaced their Lucent system with a customized PC-based advanced phone system. In the remote locations they put Voice Over IP (VOIP) phones that communicated directly with the VoIP phone system over secure private network DSL lines. This enabled the remote offices to have all the advanced features of the main office.

They also setup a feature that enabled the salesman to manage where they can be reached. In doing so, they would be able to give out a single phone number that routed through the phone system. They would direct where the phone would ring or even the order of where they can be reached and the amount of times it would ring by each location. If the call would go to voicemail the voicemail would actually reside on the phone system and a voice file would be emailed to the salesman. Some salesmen chose to have a copy, of the voice file, also emailed to the operations person who handled their accounts.

This solved their problems by doing the following:

- Cut down, drastically, on the cost of inter-office communications. The costs of the DSL lines are marginalized due to their dual-use as data lines. All calls between offices are now as if they are in the same office, they communicate by calling the extension, not an outside number.

- One place for voice-mail, all located on the phone system. Cell phone calls are now called by the phone system and if the salesman is unavailable it puts it in the internal voice-mail. This allows for easier voice-mail management.

- Due to the advanced routing feature, calls can ring by multiple places to reach a person who can help the client.

- When salesmen are now unavailable the calls can be automatically rerouted to another salesman who can help.

- All calls, in all offices, can now be managed and kept track of. Client communications can be more effectively handled.

This is just a small sample of the improvements made to the business process. Another advantage to the VoIP system is; as new features, and advancements, come out they can be integrated into Saran's current platform. Expandability is also part and parcel of this VoIP experience; the system can grow as Saran grows. Cy Yablonsky is a realtor associate at Othello Realty,www.OthelloRealty.com. Cy has an extensive background in technology and communications and applies that to the real estate market. Feel free to reprint this article as long as all links stay live and no changes are made.

Cy Yablonsky is a realtor associate at Othello Realty,www.OthelloRealty.com. Cy has an extensive background in technology and communications and applies that to the real estate market. Feel free to reprint this article as long as all links stay live and no changes are made.

Stay Connected With Your Downline Using Free VoIP

Over the last few years I have noticed a large amount of my downline, sponsors and clients often have terrible phone calling plans depending on where they live. One of the top skills we as sponsors in our programs continually teach our teams to pick up the phone and call their downlines in an effort to help those people achieve success.

If you live in a good part of the country or a country that offers great phone calling plans you don't have much to worry about. However if you are unfortunate to live where the plan is very expensive, you may not be in a position to call your team properly. Keep in mind that a phone call can make the difference between getting an active member or losing that member for good.

So how do you solve this problem if you are an online marketer or business owner but you're one of the unfortunate people who cannot afford to call as much as you should? I may have a simple solution for you that will not break the bank. VOIP is Voice Over Internet Protocol. In other words you use your PC and your internet connection to make telephone calls for free or low monthly plans. You can even pay as you go in some cases.

Google Talk:
If you don't mind registeting for a free Gmail account at Google they offer free VOIP service that enables you to call or send instant messages your team, family and friends. Offering a quick download it should only take you about 3 minutes on a modem ( files size: 900K). One notable item is that it requires Windows XP/2000 with a minimum of a 56k (broadband recommended) connection. Dial up will work however broadband will be easy to talk and IM your friends.

iConnectHere | Broadband Phone:
What's nice about iConnectHere is it's low normal plans starting under twenty dollars. They will help you "Hang up on High Prices" as their slogan says. iConnectHere Broadband Phone offers low calling rates maybe the lowest in the world for your local, long distance and international telephone needs. Imagine being able to call that lead from Austailia! Their plans could save you up to 80% when compared with traditional phone service according to thier sites information. Plus their plans include bundled features at no extra cost.

As you can see just from the two services above you do now have a way to connect with your new referrals, sponsors, customers or even your family and friends can use free VOIP to cut costs. Using these types of services will help improve your support to your downline and won't cost you like it does when you use a land line phone system with their high cost calling plans.

If that's not enough for you here are two more services that will make it easy for you to contact the important people in your online business. This service is called Skype where the whole world can talk for free according to the Skype website.

Using the service Skype provides, you can call ordinary phone numbers all over the world. if your downline member has a bad calling plan as well Skype is a little program that allows anyone to make free calls over the internet to anyone else who also has the Skype software which is free, easy to download and to use. It also knows how to play nice with most computers available today.

Skype also offers Voicemail which lets you direct your incoming calls when you?re busy or offline to your voicemail. Your downline will be happy they can get in contact with you when they have questions.

NetZero also offers you a service where you can call people anywhere in the world from your computer for free. NetZero Voice makes calling as easy as instant messaging, except instead of typing (chatting) you are talking over your Internet connection for free.

Simple to use as with other similar services you just download the software, sign-in with your NetZero member ID and dial any NetZero member ID to begin talking for free and it works with dial-up or broadband.

Either way you look at it, now you can and really you should select one of these types of services so you can enable voice communications with your new referrals and customers. It just makes sense as people buy from people not websites or buildings. They buy from you, if you call them! Get VOIP and get in touch with them today! Joe Sansoucie is the owner of the Pay Per Click search engine http://Frogsearch.com where every Thursday evening he hosts a keyword workshop for new online business owners in an effort to help them identify and successfully target their market. Visit Joe here. http://www.frogsearch.com

Wireless VoIP

Wireless and VoIP have joined forces. Installing a WLAN network card into your computer uses wireless technology. After installing the card, your computer will become "wireless". This means that you will be able to enjoy an Internet connection without the use of cables and cords.

VoIP is the technology that allows the transmission of audio files by transmitting them into data packets across the Internet. By integrating Wireless and VoIP a new generation of audio telecommunications has been birthed. By having a VoIP service and a wireless connection, you can enjoy the best of both worlds- wireless VoIP connections.

Visit http://www.infonet.us for more articles on voip

Wireless networks are activated by what is known as a "hotspot". A hotspot is an area where there is an access point. Wireless connections are basically created by radio signals. An access point is where the network has established their main signal. It is possible for wireless users to basically "jump" from hotspot to hotspot and utilize various networks access points.

The combination of Wireless and VoIP has led to another invention-VoWiFi. VoWiFi stands for Voice over Wireless Fidelity. VoWiFi has also produced the new VoWiFi phones. These phones operate like cell phones, only they use VoIP technology, (transmit over the Internet) and are wireless, operating in various hotspots.

VoWiFi phones are very inexpensive to use, as is all of VoIP technology. It is much cheaper to submit audio as data packets over the Internet and it uses considerably less bandwidth. This is a reason why VoIP technology is gaining in strength and momentum.

Many people are choosing the freedom that is offered by VoIP. VoIP can offer nearly free or free long distance phone calls. Since VoWi Fi operates from hotspot to hotspot or network-to-network, you may think that there are roaming charges involved. Well, this is not the cellular network that you love/hate. There are no roaming charges involved with VoIP. That's right, you can take your VoWiFi phone from hotspot to hotspot, maintaining your connection (provided you easily go from hotspot to hotspot) absolutely free.

You may be wondering why not just use cellular? Why go wireless? Well, for those who travel a lot or are consistently out of their cellular range, roaming charges will apply and can be expensive. By using your VoWiFi in hotspots while you are traveling, you can pick up a connection and make your calls for free.

Be careful not to confuse a VoWiFi phone with a cordless VoIP phone. They are two distinctively different products. A VoWiFi phone will enable you to access hotspots, but a cordless VoIP phone is simply a way to have a cordless phone in your house that is compatible with your VoIP service provider.

VoWiFi phones are hitting the market and companies such as Vonage are soon to debut their new VoWiFi phones.

An interesting trend is the creation of the hybrid phone. If someone is a traveling salesman, or just simply travels frequently and is on their cell phone, then leave their network range- they can take advantage of the new hybrid phone. The hybrid phone, which is part cellular, part VoWiFi, will be able to access hotspots, and pick up a signal. Voila- no more roaming charges!

Wireless VoIP does show promising signs towards the future and many look anxiously awaiting new products and increasing performance by these products. You will have to have a VoIP service provider before you can access VoWiFi. However, you can still find many free hotspots that will give your phone a connection.

Both Wireless and VoIP are relatively new technologies that have a lot of kinks that need to be worked out. The products are hitting the market at increasing speed, while rules, regulations, and security issues seem to be taking second place. That is the nature of telecommunications technology though, and we can expect that the face of Wireless VoIP will look very different in the next few years. Major corporations are already embracing this technology, creating services, phones, hybrid phones and plans that center on VoIP while the FCC races to determine where in fact VoIP technology's classifications lay.

There have been significant issues regarding wireless VoIP and security and 911 services. Well the good news is, that while these issues are battled out, agreed upon, and rewritten, we can still take our phones and lily pad our way from hotspot to hotspot- free of roaming charges.

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VoIP for Corporate Users

In the constant battle to reduce expenses, and improve the overall bottom line, many corporations have begun to see the potential of VoIP internet telephony as a more efficient way to handle their telecommunications related needs.

When setting up a VoIP infrastructure, most corporations choose to extensively compare VoIP providers, in order to ensure that they're getting the best deal possible.

Large companies and government organizations often elect to create their own private VoIP networks, to guarantee maximal quality and security. Smaller companies generally find it more cost effective to use internet-based broadband phone services, which have now reached an almost perfect level of quality, and are available at extremely low rates.

Jeremy Maddock is the webmaster of TeleClick.ca, a trusted source of telecommunications news.

VoIP Technology For The Little Guy....

Michael Lemm

Not everyone in the world has sufficient internet access capability to take advantage of the benefits from VoIP. Shoot....most folks are lucky to have 1 phone line for that matter. This dose of reality kinda puts the dampers on the "VoIP will take over the world" conspiracy theory.

Not everyone in the world has sufficient internet access capability to take advantage of the benefits from VoIP. Shoot....most folks are lucky to have 1 phone line for that matter. This dose of reality kinda puts the dampers on the "VoIP will take over the world" conspiracy theory.

But hold on there Junior....the little guy may just have found a hero.

Mail2speak, a US-based company, is offering users cut-throat rates to place international calls. But wait until you learn how they do it....read on.

For example......

• You can call the US and UK from South Africa for R1.35 a minute. Telkom charges between double and triple the price for these calls. Calls to Australia from SA are also about 50% cheaper.
• You can call anywhere in the United States and most of Europe from Malaysia for just 45 sen per minute compared to 98 sen per minute at present charged by a local company using land lines. For mobile phones, the calls will be 68 sen per minute as opposed to 98 sen. A call to China costs 50 sen per minute on a fixed line compared to 1.98 RM by fixed line charged by a local company.
• You can call anywhere in the United States and much of Europe from Brazil for around 0.33 BRL.
• You can call Japan from Italy for 0.11 EUR......the US for 0.08 EUR.
• You can call India from UAE for 2.63 AED.......the UK for 1.74 AED.

Those are just a small sample of what is available.

How?

What makes the service unique is that unlike other Internet telephony applications, mail2speak does not require a microphone, a software download or a dedicated broadband connection with special equipment. All that is required to use the service is access to the website and an open phone line or cellphone to receive a call. You can place an international call from any phone or mobile/PDA at super low rates.

The process is simple. Just visit mail2speak and fill out a few registration details. After that enter the overseas number you wish to call and within seconds your phone will ring. The call will have been placed for you and you can talk to your loved ones....or business contacts.... at a ridiculously low rate.

The service is available to and from 280 countries around the world. Your relatives and business contacts overseas can also use this service to contact you and pay in their local currency.

If, as in many international homes with Internet connections, there is only one phone line available, Mail2speak will automatically call you again in one minute to give you time to end the Internet connection and receive the call. They do this because calls to cellphones cost more in some countries.

For business people who make frequent international calls, mail2speak is especially convenient because it allows you to store the numbers that are called and simply click on them to be connected automatically.

** In addition, if you do not need to have a two-way chat there is another great service that is offered.

You can use your telephone to leave a message for as many overseas friends as you want for just 63 cents a minute. This message will be e-mailed as an Internet sound file (voice email).

All in all....pretty cool solution for the average Joe around the globe. VoIP technology for the little guy. Gotta love it.

Michael is the owner of FreedomFire Communications http://ld.net/mscprez and http://DS3-Bandwidth.com .......delivering choices to both residential and business consumers worldwide for voice and data broadband services. Michael also authors BroadBand Nation http://BroadBand-Nation.blogspot.com where you're always welcome to to drop in and catch up on the latest BroadBand news, tips, and ramblings for the masses.