VoIP service comparison What is VoIP?
Voice over Internet Protocol, also called VoIP, or Internet telephony, is the routing of voice conversations over the Internet. Internet VoIP service rings and has a dial tone just like any other telephone and for some it’s eliminating plain old telephone service (POTS) entirely.
Unlike traditional analog telephone signals, which travel through a PSTN (public switched telephone network), VoIP digitizes the speaker's voice and sends it through either cable or DSL broadband Internet connections. You can talk PC to PC ,usually free, or PC to PSTN and vice versa, for a much smaller charge than you're paying now. If you download one of the free ones like Skype, Gizmo or SightSpeed or suscribe to one of the monthly VoIP sevices, an adapter can connect your regular telephone to your Internet connection.
Benefits of VoIP
VoIP to VoIP phone calls are usually free, while VoIP to public switched telephone networks, PSTN, may have a cost carried by the VoIP user. Whether you're a business user or home user, VoIP saves money and offers innovative ways to communicate. See Below.
| Web Buttons/Widgets | Description |
Skype | | You can call or video-conference and display your online status, or presence, to your customers. You can talk and video conference with other Skype users worldwide for free. You can also call any landline or mobil phone for cheap rates. 40 of the most called overseas countries are usually 2.1 cents a minute. If you don't want to be disturbed you can automatically send all incoming calls to voice mail or forward them to another number. More on Skype here. |
Google/Voice | | You can even put a web button like this one from Google on your web site or blog. Your friends, relatives or customers can call you for free from their own phones without a PC or software download. Your customers, family and friends need not be concerned about the underlying technology or software. I actually use Google/Voice to handle all (PC, mobile, landline) my incoming calls.More on Google/Voice here. |
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SightSpeed | | Put a SightSpeed button to call or video conference with other SightSpeed users for free. SightSpeed is considered to have the best video quality of all the video-conferencing VoIP services. You can also call landlines and mobile phones for cheap rates like Skype. More on SightSpeed here. |
| GizmoProject | | You can talk with other GizmoProject users worldwide for free, but it does lack video capabilities. You can also call any domestic landline or mobile phone for a very reasonably priced 1-cent-per-minute, pay-as-you-go plan and they also have very low rates for international calls. To accept calls to your PC from regular phones will cost you $3 a month to get a local number in your area code.If you don't want to be disturbed you can automatically send all incoming calls to voice mail or forward them to another number. More on GizmoProject here. |
| TerraSip | | TerraSip offers free internet telephony for TerraSip community members using international SIP standards. Calls into other networks are charged at especially reasonable rates, whereby users can take advantage of 56 country-specific special prices, so that the majority can further optimise their telephone costs. Membership of the TerraSip community is free.
TerraSip’s main orientation is in the direction of mobile internet telephony: Voice over WLAN or VoWLAN for short. |
| Yackpack | | The simplicity of a WalkieTalkie is offered by yackpack. Just "Push to Talk." YackPack web browser based interfaces can quickly improve your business communication; provided you are at your PC to answer. It would be even better if it showed your status (online, not available, etc.) the way Skype does. I suppose you could add some qualifing text such as, "Available from 9AM - 5PM EST".
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