The Best VoIP Services: Know Your Choices

It seems like the frenzy over VoIP is reaching its peak now. Businesses are getting onboard, and a lot more consumers have switched from traditional phones, or are considering it. The main selling point of the VoIP industry is savings – but is this really so? What are your real choices out there if you’re looking for VoIP services or business prospects in the VoIP industry?

Case #1: Vonage

When you talk of savings through VoIP services, the first thing that might come to mind is Vonage. And why not? It’s been drilled into our heads how it is the lowest priced VoIP company around.

In reality, Vonage’s rates aren’t really low. Yes, their published price is the lowest at face value, but wait till you see a typical bill. Vonage has set their published price so low that, if they really stuck to this, they’d be losing money. Hence, a typical Vonage bill has a lot of “hidden fees” like the Regulatory, Compliance and Intellectual Property Fees (for what again!?). With all due respect to Vonage for pioneering the VoIP industry – these “hidden fees” will surely not endear the company to new or prospective switchers. In the end, there are five to ten dollars of extra non-tax add-on charges depending on the exact plan.

Of course, with Vonage, you’d also need to look at the fine print of their “non-existent” contract (Non-existent, as in consumers don’t often know about it until they need to). There is a 30-day money-back guarantee but the clause requires that the service is cancelled via toll-free phone. The standard wait time for this is more than 30 minutes. Likewise, if you decide to cancel services after the 30-day guarantee and before reaching your two-year anniversary with the company, you’ll likely be charged a cancellation fee ($39.99). If you signed up with promotional pricing or “pre-owned” equipment, there will be additional fees.

Clearly, something about all this and the supposed savings with Vonage just don’t add up.

Case #2: MagicJack

In recent months, we’ve heard about the wonders of MagicJack. It’s like a “never-do-wrong” little new toy that can save all of us from expensive phone bills. But, really now?

MagicJack is a USB device you plug into your computer. Through your broadband connection and the services of the digital telephone company YMAX, you get to call anywhere in the United States for free. The initial year using MagicJack is free. Subsequent years come with a $19.99 fee each. If you want to use conventional phones with the MagicJack, you’ll need a subscriber line interface to plug into the gear.

Now, all this sounds good on paper. But, note that your computer needs to be up all the time if you want to use the device like a regular phone. Even when your computer’s up all the time, connection and audio quality are still dependent on your computer's use of the internet for other things.  There's no way to keep a video download from interfering with your phone conversation.

Another thing that has turned off people with the MagicJack is the ads and the company’s privacy policy. Ads are fed into your computer whenever you use the device. Add to that, it analyzes the numbers that you call to tailor-fit the ads. So, if you call for pizza a lot, you can expect tons of pizza ads from your MagicJack.

The final frequent complaint about MagicJack is that calls often have to be dialed several times to connect.  After finally getting a connection, calls drop after a few minutes.  This problem seems to be much worse at “peak usage” times such as late afternoon and early evenings on weekdays.

If you consider the computer usage cost, the immobility, and the intrusive ads, is there anything really different from the MagicJack and free services like Skype and Yahoo Messenger? If you want something like MagicJack, you might as well get the free ones.

Real Savings In VoIP

Real savings in VoIP don’t always come with the lowest list price. In fact, more often than not, you get what you pay for when you go with cheap VoIP services. The best VoIP services for both consumer and prospective reseller come with the whole package: high-end switched telecommunications systems, manageability, flexibility, and above-average user/reseller support.

Now, this may add up to a price that’s a little higher than Vonage’s, MagicJack’s or those of the cheap VoIP services at the start, but the real savings come as you use the service. When you can no longer tell the difference between your digital telephony provider and your old phone company, especially when it comes to connection and audio quality (except when you get a very much lowered VoIP bill), then you’ll know you’ve found a VoIP service that’s a keeper.

For businesses that want to get into the VoIP industry, ask your prospective wholesale VoIP service provider about their telecommunications systems, managed/hosted services, client support, as well as, flexibility and user-manageability. The best VoIP services give you a solid high-end and integrated telecommunications system to rely on. This way, you can focus on taking your marketing plan into action.

These good (or great) wholesale VoIP service providers may not let you sell the lowest priced VoIP service in the market, but they will give you the best VoIP service to sell. Only then can you get the best kinds of customers – those who look at quality and value, not just at the list price.