Thinking of getting yourself a VoIP telephone?

Once you have decided to switch from a traditional land telephone line service to IP-Telephony service, you'll need to decide which VoIP plan to get. The biggest benefit for using VoIP is its cost efficiency against normal telephone lines.

Does the location of the company matter?
May be, if the service provider is located in another country. More often than not the call will be delayed. A short delay before hearing a Yes can make all the difference in your sales talk or discussion. May be you eliminate some providers only by looking at their areas of service. If you plan to make international long distance calls, VoIP service is definitely the way to go. All internet providers publish their international long distance rates on their website, so compare rates in order to find the best rates. Rates vary by IP-Telephony provider, depending on the country you are calling.

Are you often on tour?
If you want to make and receive calls when traveling, you should look for a VoIP plan that offers a free softphone. This is an applet that runs on your laptop, and allows you to make and receive calls through your VoIP service account. Many companies charge extra for a softphone service.

Do you need unlimited calls?
You will need to decide if you need unlimited call possibility, or a maximum amount of minutes per month. You also need to consider international long distance calling. Some service providers offer you a local telephone number which can be used like a normal phone line.

Quality of service
An essential criteria is the quality of service provided by the provider to guarantee crystal clear voice quality. Along with this, high speed Internet connection should also be available for transmission of your calls. You will need a good broadband Internet connection provider.

Extra features
VoIP services has some value added features like three way calling, call routing, fax capabilities, call filter options, teleconferencing, videoconferencing, call waiting, and return call. They provide you with the facility of forwarding the call to a particular telephone number and give the caller a busy tone and play a message. Some services may seem to be cheap but they may lack in such important features. Therefore, you need to check their offer and choose the one which best fits to your needs.

Jim Francisto
has a master degree in IT and is a technical writer and business consultant
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