Can I really save money using VoIP?

Save money using VoIP

VoIP service can save you money, and sometimes can save you a great deal of money, each month when compared to standard landline service from your phone company. While Voice over IP service was originally rather marginal with questionable reliability, VoIP solutions now provide excellent quality, reliability, and serious cost savings. An indicator of its growing popularity and quality is that even traditional landline phone companies, like AT&T have developed VoIP to, in a sense, compete with themselves.

For example, standard residential landline phone service, with unlimited long distance, voice mail, caller ID, etc., can currently cost $65 to $85 per month. You can find VoIP providers who offer, not only identical services, but expanded software-driven options, for just $20 to $30 per month.

Having a reliable, up-to-date computer and a good high speed Internet provider is the main caution that you should consider. Another obvious issue to understand is that your phone service will be down if your computer or Internet provider is off line for weather or technical reasons.

If you live in an area that is subject to frequent, severe storms or spotty IP service, you might consider installing a battery backup system for your computer. This is not normally a serious issue in most parts of the U.S., however. Even international phone calls using broadband VoIP service are extremely low cost, often much less than standard overseas rates.

And if you decide to use your VoIP service as a pure computer-to-computer connection, your cost could even be lower since almost all calls placed to another with a similar PC connection may be completely free.

As the quality and reliability of VoIP continues to increase as the cost remains so low, VoIP becomes more and more attractive. Use the Internet to read reviews of different VoIP providers from both customers and computer experts to gain confidence and select the best VoIP service provider for your needs.