A Real Comparison Of Residential VOIP Service Providers

By: Jay Anderson

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?

To begin with at the very core of it, you need to realize that almost all the VOIP services usually work as advertised. But studies have shown that more than 90% of the time where there is a problem, the problem is not with the VOIP service but really is with the high speed Internet connection of the user, and if that is bad, there is not a VOIP service on the planet that will work well there. If satellite high speed is all you have, don't even think about VOIP because it is almost guaranteed to not work well, if at all.

So assuming you have a great high speed Internet connection at your home that is both reliable and stable, how can you decide which VOIP service is best? Unfortunately a decision cannot be made by looking at the set of features included, since the feature set is pretty much the same with all the major carriers, which would include caller ID, voicemail, call waiting, three way calling, and unlimited local and long distance calling within the continental United States. When it comes down to it, what else do you really need?

So how else can you make a determination? Look at the price. Now things start to get more interesting, since pricing varies quite a bit for basically the same service, depending on the VOIP provider. From the industry leaders, you have Vonage, Earthlink VOIP and Packet8 which each costs $24.99 per month. You have Comcast and Charter which cost $29.99 per month. All of these providers do a fair amount of advertising, especially Vonage, and it would appear that you, the consumer, is being asked to help pay for their cost of advertising, doesn't it?

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.

They do not advertise at Best Buy or Fry's Electronics and do not include flyers with your Visa statements. But then again, they are not asking you to pay extra for the VOIP service to cover the cost of their advertising expenses 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.

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For more insights and additional information about VOIP Service Provider Comparison and to see our Best Value and Top Pick recommendation for residential VOIP service, please visit our web site at www.voipinsideinfo.com/our_expert_opinion_and_picks.php

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