A Real Comparison Of Residential VOIP Service Providers

The VOIP service market is exploding lately and it seems like just about everybody has a VOIP service offering for your home. You see the TV ads all the time, and you can hardly get a statement from your bank or credit card company without a VOIP service flyer in it. We all know that much of it is marketing hype but how do you know which one is the real McCoy?

First and foremost, you must understand that most VOIP services really do work as they claim, but the long pole in the tent is the stability and reliability of your high speed Internet connection. Since this connection is used to make and receive phone calls on your VOIP phone, if that connection is not reliable and stable, there is not a VOIP carrier anywhere that can provide what you would consider good service, and it is not the VOIP carrier's fault. Don't even consider VOIP if your high speed Internet connection is satellite, because that was never designed to work with VOIP and you will be sorely disappointed.

So if your DSL or cable high speed Internet connection is reliable and stable, then how can you make an informed decision as to which VOIP service gives you the best value? You can start by looking at the feature set, which unfortunately is pretty much the same with all of the major ones, where they include unlimited local and long distance calling within continental US, voicemail, call waiting, caller ID, and three way calling. Really, what else do you really need?

So with the feature set pretty much the same, let's look at the cost for the service from the major players. Vonage costs $24.99 per month, Comcast and Charter both charge $29.99 per month, and both Packet8 and Earthlink VOIP charge $24.99 per month. It would appear to us that you, the consumer, is being asked to pay more for their services to cover the cost of the advertising that each of these do. Does that make sense?

We have found a very stable company who has been offering VOIP service for a number of years and the cost is only $19.95 per month. And if you are willing to sign up for a year in advance, that cost drops to under $17 per month. Yes, it still includes unlimited long distance calling in the continental US, and they also include unlimited calling to Canada and Puerto Rico. Of course they offer the standard VOIP features of caller ID, voicemail, call waiting, etc.

This company does not advertise at Circuit City, Frys or Best Buy and they do not include flyers in your bank statements and Visa statements every month. But at the same time, they are not charging you more and expecting you to subsidize their advertising costs like the others do.

If you are going to switch to VOIP for your residential phone, you need to factor this VOIP provider into your equation. It just does not good economic sense to pay more for a service than you need to, especially when you have such a cost effective option.