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VOIP is the latest (photo 20th Century Fox)
VOIP? VOIP is the way to save big money on in-home telephone. For well under $30 a month you replace your landline, or POTS (which, among geeks, stand for plain old telephone service). From voip companies like Vonage you'll get unlimited local and long distance, voice mail, caller ID and the rest of the features you covet.
You can pronounce it "voip" to rhyme with, well, nothing. Try the oi sound as in coil. You can call it "vee-oh-eye-pee," which is what most people do. VOIP stands for voice over internet protocol and that's the last technology you'll ever need to know about it.
I got onto VOIP, or computer phone, or digital phone, when my kids were all military and deployed about the globe. I felt like the phone company should put up a wall plaque commemorating my contribution to their profits. They disagreed.
What is VOIP?
VOIP, broadband phone technology carries sound (or data) particles across cyber space and reassembles them into your voice at the other end. Kind of like what happened to the guy in the movie, The Fly.
People are catching on. Everybody has a friend with broadband phone. The popular VOIP services involve a traditional telephone, an internet service provider and broadband service coming into your home.
There are other computer-based communication services - one is Skype - which are coming around to the fact that people want a phone they can carry around. Skype is working on a sort of cellular service.
VOIP providers in the Chicago area
These are some of the more well-known providers:
- Allvoi - offers free activation and $30 per month
- Vonage - $9.95 per month for 3 months, then $29.95
- Skype - mostly, calls are placed on your computer. FREE
- Comcast - markets theirs as digital phone service and charges about 25% more
- AT&T and other phone companies also call it digital. Competitive in packages.
- Packet 8 - business service, higher priced.
- JoiPhone joiphone.com - $8.95 per month, always aggressive discounts
Setting up VOIP
Vonage was pretty easy to set up - took less than an hour after I bought my adapter at a big box store. I got a rebate certificate for the full price. I read the paragraph of directions and hooked it up. Anyone can do it in five minutes. Tech support is 24/7 with larger providers.
You need broadband service. You'll manage your telephone account online, adding and dropping features at will. I could perform a lot of tasks, including fantastic record keeping and monitoring my phone account via the internet by logging into my VOIP account.
I like all the gingerbread - caller ID, call waiting, forwarding, you name it - lumped in - no charge. My favorite feature is voice mail notification by email. Too cool. It's almost a sure thing that subscribers keep their existing phone number.
Weather seems to affect VOIP; someone told me sunspots do, too. The technology isn't perfect, but if you seek out the best deals, you can't beat the savings over POTS to keep touch with friends and family.
Want to save more money? Find out how you can slash the cost of TV and movie viewing at home.
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