How To Do A VOIP Comparison To Find Your Best Value

By Jon Arnold

The first thing you need to do when doing a VOIP comparison or a comparison of virtually any other product or service is to understand that lowest price rarely is the same thing as best value. Even many government contracts these days, where they used to be solely focused on lowest price, are changing to consider the aspect of best value, which is rarely the same thing.

Granted, there is no sense in paying more for something than you need to, and there is also no sense in paying for features of a service that you will rarely if ever use. But for basic functionality, I would strongly encourage you to look for the best overall value for a service instead of merely best price, especially when doing a VOIP comparison.

The first thing you need to consider is what features you want with your VOIP service and why you are considering it. With residential or home office usage, implementing VOIP is almost a no-brainer. With a traditional telephone line costing you $25 a month or more and having no more additional features than just a dial tone, justifying the implementation of VOIP services at approximately the same price which also includes the other standard VOIP features of unlimited long distance calling, calling waiting, voicemail, and others truly makes it a bargain. But then again, consider if you need those features � if you never make long distance calls, you don't need voicemail or call waiting, then it makes little sense to use technology such as VOIP simply for the sake of technology.

Even for the small office, VOIP does not automatically mean cost savings. There is nothing automatic about it in terms of cost savings. If your small office is doing less than about 4000 long distance minutes per month, it may not make financial sense to implement VOIP.

Consider that when doing a VOIP comparison, at least one aspect is going to be the same for all carriers, and that is the reliability of your high-speed Internet connection. VOIP services use your high-speed Internet connection to make and receive your phone calls, and without a very reliable, stable, and otherwise rock solid high-speed Internet connection, you are not going to have a pleasant experience with VOIP no matter which VOIP service provider you choose. Note that the VOIP provider has absolutely no control over how reliable your Internet connection is.

When doing your VOIP comparison, make a list of the features you want to have and make sure you are comparing apples to apples when looking at VOIP service offerings. Is unlimited long distance important to you? If so, make sure that is there. Is voicemail important, or call waiting? If so, make sure they are there.

How is the carrier's customer service? There are some carriers where the customer service is so bad that their VOIP service is not a bargain at any price. If you have ever had to get through to Verizon customer service, you know exactly how frustrating that can be, and I don't know about you, but my time is worth something more than listening to elevator music on hold.

For more insights and a comparison of the leading VOIP service providers, as well as seeing our Expert Pick for the VOIP Comparison please visit our web site at http://www.voipinsideinfo.com

VOIP vs Every Day Phone Service - Free Trial VOIP Solutions

By Ivan A Cuxeva

As you may know, VOIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol. This useful technology has brought together people from all over the world using the most extensive network there is, the World Wide Web. The use of the internet allows us to connect with users all around the globe. The web is no longer seen as a plain structure which only allows exchange of text-based data.

In the earlier days the web was known to bring excellent offers from companies who started to explore their possibilities by extending their business to virtual locations on web servers. As time went by, the Internet was used more and more not only to purchase goods but to exchange information, this is why when many hear the word "internet" they are immediately reminded of "chat rooms". That is actually how the internet started to gain ground and popularity. People liked the way this emerging a new technology let them connect with they didn't know, with friends, family, etc.

Most web users at some point or another thought "Email and chat rooms are OK but it doesn't beat verbal communication". This fact remained true for quite some time until software developers created software applications which allowed users to communicate verbally with each other through the web just like if they were sending data packets. In reality, text, voice and video can be turned into computer data and sent over fiber optic cables or phone lines. This is how most people think of VOIP, and that's in-fact very close to the way VOIP enabled devices work.

The only problem at the time was that such software programs were unable to place actual phone calls but rather all communication conducted through a PC to PC interface which is still used today by may applications. Phone companies became aware of the possibility clients would turn their backs on their service and started offering Voice Over IP communications as an alternative choice.

Other companies emerged such as Vonage, Packet8, VOIP, BBtelsys, Cordia, etc. These companies used this technology to offer alternatives to consumers. Many people have decided to use their VOIP solutions because they are cheap compared to regular phone services, which sounds good but since it is a new concept many people are not sure if this kind of technology is for them.

That's why finding VOIP companies which offer free trials is very useful. Some of them provide the service for free as a second line which can be tested side by sides against the user's existing phone service and after thirty days the user can decide which way he/she wants to follow. As you can see this is very convenient because if the service turns out to be not what you expected, you can just cancel and owe nothing.

This technology is also used by businesses because it cuts their communication expenses by more than half. But aside from being a financially smart decision, voice over IP solutions have all the features we use every day such as: caller ID, call waiting, conference calling, call forwarding, redial, call transfer and logs, message waiting, hold and speed dial. So as you see it is not that different from our current service which makes voice over IP an easy to adapt and understand technology.

VoipDocument offers more information about phone service and free trial VoIP providers. Get great voip deals and learn more about this useful technology from our VoIP knowledge base. Visit us today!.