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By Jessica Liu
As high speed and broadband internet connections are becoming
more prevalent in homes across the United States, people are
asking themselves can VOIP calling save me money on my phone
bill? To answer this question you need to take a deeper look
at
VOIP calling and the expenses related to switching to VOIP.
The first thing to you should know is how VOIP calling works.
When you place a VOIP call it works by converting the voice
signal that you speak into the phone handset into a digital
signal and sending it over the internet. This signal is then
converted back into a voice signal and comes out of the
earpiece on the other end. By sending the signal over the
internet it doesn’t matter how far it has to go, a call across
the street costs the same as call across the country. For
people who have monthly long distance bills that are over $20,
VOIP calling may be able to save you money on your phone bill.
When evaluating VOIP services you should have an idea of your
monthly calling volume. The best thing to do is look at your
phone bill for the past three months and figure out how many
minutes you are using. If you are using less than 500 minutes
a
month you will find VOIP calling plans that are probably much
less than your monthly phone bill. If you are using over 1000
minutes each month you’ll probably find unlimited calling
plans
will be more cost effective. If you make a lot of
international
calls, check to see if those calls are included in the plans
you are evaluating.
Some VOIP services require that you update your telephone
equipment. This is especially important if you have more then
one phone in the house. The key to the VOIP system is VOIP
router. It connects your broadband internet access to your new
phone system. Some routers only interface with newer VOIP
phones, meaning you will have to purchase new phones. Some
routers allow you to plug conventional phones into them and
keep your existing equipment. This really becomes an important
factor if you have more than one telephone in your house.
Another factor to consider is the length of the contract. Many
companies offer month to month contracts, others offer yearly,
and some offer two year contracts. While a two year contract
may look attractive from a price standpoint, locking yourself
into a developing technology for twenty four months is
something to give serious consideration to. A one year
contract
usually provides the best trade off between price and time
commitment.
© Copyright VOIPTelephoneSystem.org, All Rights Reserved.
About The Author: Jessica Liu writes articles about VOIP for
www.voiptelephonesystem.org which cover VOIP technology
and VOIP related news.
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