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April 7, 2005
Lowering Your Monthly Phone Bill
Posted by Laura Rich at 5:31 PM
Verizon and AOL on Thursday each unveiled new Internet-based phone plans. Verizon will charge just $29.95 for unlimited calls; AOL's monthly fee is $29.99. While these two giants duke it out, they will also face competition from cable companies like Comcast, telcos such as SBC, and startups Vonage and even Skype. Call it the Internet phone wars.
This is all good news for small businesses, who, as long as they migrate to VoIP, will see their phone bills diminished -- sometimes by half. Meanwhile, IT providers across the board are stepping up their services for small businesses, including VoIP, meaning not just lower prices but better products and services.
For more information on whether Internet-based phone service is right for your business, and to make the most of this move, check out Inc.com article "VoIP: Is It Ready for Primetime?" in the SBC Internet Strategies Center.



And Skype continues to work just fine, thank you. About $40 annually to SkypeIn and $13/mo to SkypeOut to anywhere in the world. Still beats the big boys plans of abouit $40/month!
You might want to check out the discussions on the Vonage VoIP Forum, www.vonage-forum.com
They seem to have a well balance of VoIP topics, with little fan fair.
Also, Skype users now have a large selection of add-ons to choose from, communities built up around Skype, as well as "Skype phones"...
I've been running the web site http://www.summitcircle.com/ were I have collected and categorized almost 200 different links to "Skype stuff" so far.
I also am curious as to the quality of Vonage.
Please post more info as you find it. Thanks
Re: Voice Quality. The Tolly Group has produced independent voice quality test reports of Vonage, Skype, Lingo, VoiceWing and others that are available (for a charge) via: http://www.tollyresearch.com/ReportsByProject.Aspx?ProjectID=P7010
I use AT&T CallVantage. $29.99 for a virtual number based off broadband connection. Most features included.
*** Bad three way connection. It's so bad, it typically gets cut-off 20 / 25 minutes into a call. By that time, you mini conference call is ready to get recapped... Boom the line goes down.
Hello.
I have problem with enter to this site via GPRS.
Please, help me.
Thanks!
Best regards.
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