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Discount Telephone Service |
Telephone Services
There areen't as many local phone services to choose fram as their used to be. A lot of the discount local service providers who jumped into the market after the local telecom markets were deregulated, have gone out of business or been bought up by the surviving baby bells. There are a couple of triple plays being offered by Charter and ComCast, along with service from Cleartel and Qwest, but thats about it. Visit our Local Phone Service page for prices and availablility.
Long distance services are still available from many discount carriers, and you shouldn't have any problems finding a great carrier on our Long Distance page. My recomendation would be to go with a VoIP plan if you have high speed internet access, or to sign up with Pioneer or Opex if you don't. Pioneer and Opex have the best overall customer service ratings of all discount phone companies. Use the Search Tool if you want to see which plan would save you the most money overall.
In most casses, business phone services are the same price as residential services. The only difference is that business plans have what's called a PICC Fee associated with them. The PICC Fee is a tax charged to business users by the FCC. Most companies give you the first line for free, and the charge between $3.25 and $3.75 per line after that. (I'm not sure why this varies with carrier, unless some of the carriers are eating the difference to look more attractive to their clientele).
Cell Phone Services
With so many cellular phone companies and so many plans and phones to choose from, I'm pretty sure that in the next few years, more and more people will be making their cell phones their primary, or only, phones. Oregon, which ony has around 3 million people, reported that they had lost 100,000 land line subscribers in 2005 alone. Now that it's 2010, how many more land lines are being lost to cell phone and broadband phone usage?
It will also be intersting to see what happens with wireless phones and other wireless devices as Google's Android wireless applications platform comes preloaded on more wireless devices. Part of the fear surrounding the Android platform, at least by cellular companies, is the abbility to be able to hack your cell phone so that you can use it on WiFi networks, in conjunction with VoIP, and totally bypass your cellular carrier's network. Without network tracking, there won't be any billing for extra minutes.
If you are looking for a new cell phone or cell phone plan, use the search tool on our cellular page. Or not. Sure it's easier to order your new plan and phone online, and of course it will save you money over going to a company store, but you don't get to touch the phones before you order them... OK, who cares, order you cell phone and plan from me, I want the money, and I'm way cooler than that nerd at the phone store!
Internet Phone Services
VoIP is the wave of the future, so get on board. I'm still not sure why people order land line service for $20 per month, or $50, when you figure in voice mail, call waiting and other such services. Then, on top of that, when you add in the cost of any long distance calls, the bill can go to over $100.
Broadband phone plans include call waiting, caller, voice mail and a whole bunch of other service the land line carriers charge for. Since most ulimited VoIP plans cost less than $20 per month, I'm not sure why anyone would have a land line unless they wouldn't get high speed internet access.
The best voice over ip phone plans currently on the market are offered by Phone Power, Lingo and Packet8. Losts of people talk about Vonage, but I think they are still too over extended financially after loosing all of their major patent lawsuits in the last 2 years.
In Conclusion
Internet phone service is the future for now, and gets better and better every day. Many businesses are aleady using VoIP phone systems, and odds are that you talk on one of these systems everyday and just don't know it. My prediction is that VoIP is going to take over most of the conventional land line market in the next few years, so you might as well sign up now!.
Cell phone service is here to stay. End of story. LOL
Home and business land line phone service are both on the way out, but home line phone service will go first. Businesses still make a lot of money talking to customers on the telephone. If the customer can't understand what's being said, they just might go somewhere else. Why do you think all the customer service jobs are going to India and Pakistan, while the call centers taking phone orders are still here in the United States?