New VoIP Ad

Posted on February 6, 2012 by VoIP Master

I went to Fiverr.com and had Phalbo do another 15 videos for me so I could throw them on my Youtube Channel and add them to some of the articles I’ve been writing. The videos are fun and short, only 10 sends each, so they shouldn’t irritate people too bad if they end up having to watch them. LOL

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New VoIP Video

Posted on December 29, 2011 by VoIP Master

Check out my new VoIP video on the Calling-Plans.com YouTube Channel…

I figure I’ll use this everywhere, and maybe it’ll get the VoIP message out. Since Congress and the FCC are going to kill landline phone service in the near future anyway, you might as well sign up for VoIP local and long distance phone service today!

Visit www.calling-plans.com for more fun and games, information on local, long distance, residential and business phone services.

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MagicJack Works In Ambergris Belize

Posted on November 8, 2011 by VoIP Master

I’m in Belize, and Belize only has one internet service provider, which is also their only telephone company. So, they block services like Skype, and other voice over IP products, so that they can control how you call out of the country.

I was afraid that since they block Skype and other VoIP services, that I’d end up having to spend a fortune calling back to the states. But, just in the off chance that it would work, I threw my MagicJack in the suitcase. Guess what? It works fine.

Other services that I wanted to use in Belize were either blocked from Belize, or were blocked in the US so that they couldn’t be accessed from Belize. Services like Pandora, and even the MagicJack website are blocked, unless you use a VPN. (I signed up for a VPN service, so I have Pandora too. Go Jimmy Buffett…)

So, my guess is that Magicjack is using it’s own VPN to hide IP addresses from it’s users who travel outside the United States. This is a kick-ass feature in my book, and they have once again proven to me that they are the best fricken phone company on the planet. I bet your kids can’t call you at a local Spokane Washington phone number when you’re half way to Timbuktu if you’re using CenturyLink, Verizon or Sprint, and if they can, I bet it’s not free of extra charges. Well, that’s what I get with MagicJack, and I’m using it now to call the states and visit with my kids back home.

By the way, if you want to hang out at the best resort in Belize, go to Captain Morgan’s. My wife and I spent the day their yesterday as their guests, for a time share presentation, and it was the best place I’ve ever been. They have three pools, a restaurant and a casino, and their occupancy is only around 120 people max, so it’s like getting your own private beach resort. We F*CKED up and didn’t trade into them using II because they were 10 minutes out by boat, but they run boats for free all the time round trip to San Pedro, so there really aren’t any excuses not to go there. I’m buying into their kick-ass resort, and so should you!

ps. If you own Captain Morgans, can I trade web work for a yearly visit? LOL If you’re going to visit, ask for Mike Dvorak. He gives a great tour of the place, and I’d buy from him in an instant. (Ambergris Belize is a great vacation spot people… They speak English and they’re way friendlier than Mexico!)

Visit www.Calling-Plans.com for news and information on local, long distance and VoIP phone services.

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Vocalocity VoIP Phone Service

Posted on October 25, 2011 by VoIP Master

Vocalocity specializes in providing VoIP to small businesses. Vocalocity tries to balance a low price with the features and scalability that small businesses need.

Vocalocity offers 3 affordable plans. A monthly payment, a per minute payment and a Virtual Extension. They also offer a optional add-ons to make your phone calling easier.

Vocalocity’s hosted PBX technology has helped reduce phone costs by 50 to 85 percent for small businesses. Part of this discount comes from Vocalocity’s investment in VoIP technology—they own and develop everything they send you. All phones have been certified, and all the software will be updated as quickly as it can be. It is safe and affordable!

Addtionally, it is easy to use and easy to work with:

Every Business VoIP system requires a user interface. It’s used by your phone system administrator to manage the system, and it’s used by each of your employees to manage features like voice mail and call forwarding.

So at Vocalocity, they worked hard to make our user interface remarkably easy. Many of their customers believe their user interface is the friendliest in the industry. Vocalocity’s Hosted PBX solution is simple and easy to set up. In fact, you can be up and running in about 15 minutes after receiving your phones.

Their start-up costs are low, and the monthly fees are reasonable and predictable. And with Vocalocity, there are no long-term contracts. Customers stays because they want to—not because they have to.

Why Vocalocity for Business VoIP?

Vocalocity also offers a excellent deal of helpful VoIP features as standard features: a unified inbox for fax, email, and voicemail, call flip, voicemail transcription, a convenient dashboard interface. And that’s just the beginning. Vocalocity is one of the premier VoIP companies on the market today. Pricier than most other providers, Vocalocity succeeds because if offers quality and focuses its business aim on one market – business VoIP. Think about it. Home phone users are switching to Skype or cell phones to meet their telecommunications needs. But businesses…

Hosted PBX doesn’t just lower your costs. It eliminates that closet-full of equipment that traditional phone systems require, as well as all the associated hassles of maintaining and upgrading that equipment.

In other words, you get a complete phone system with none of the equipment or hassles that traditionally go with it.

Vocalocity’s Hosted PBX is also scalable. So as your business grows, your phone system can quickly and inexpensively grow with it.

Businesses are a different beast entirely. Businesses need to be in constant contact with their customers and be constantly available – otherwise, they’re going to lose their customers to somebody else. Businesses need a professional and large image – it creates a sense that your business is going to stand the test of time.

Vocalocity can provide those intangible benefits of a business phone system – along with great customer service, an all-inclusive price, and unlimited minutes. What’s not to love?

Visit www.calling-plans.com for more information on internet phone service, landline telephone service, landline long distance and business conference calling services.

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VoIPDotCom Unlimited Phone Service

Posted on August 7, 2011 by VoIP Master

Voice over Internet Protocol, commonly known as VoIP, is a technology that allows VoIP.com to enable you to call people through the use of the internet. It is an invention that is changing the telephony world forever. This is because with VoIP, you can call a person wherever he is in the world for a much lower fee, compared to the traditional wireline telephone system.

So, what’s the difference between plain old telephone service (POTS),  and VoIP? To be truthful, the only difference is the cost it takes to call someone both locally and internationally. Imagine saving more than 50% of your normal telephone bill with the use  of VoIP! Suffice to say, VoIP works exactly the same as the old telephones but it offers a  much lower price because VoIP does not make use of the high priced telephone company’s wiring. Rather, VoIP makes use of your internet connection to place your call.

Now, with VoIP, you can choose the right kind of plan for whatever kind of connection you need:

Residential – With a residential plan, you can actually keep your number and save up to 66% on your phone bill. Residential plan starts at $14.95 per month with VoIP.com and some of the many features you can enjoy are:

1. Low international rates
2. Over 45 calling features
3. Softphone
4. Customizable accounts
5. Advanced Voicemail
6. Block lists – this feature allows you to block calls from a specific number.
7. Failsafe – enables you to automatically forward calls to an alternate number should there be problems with the internet connection or in the event of power outage.

Business – running a business demands multiple phone lines that can actually reach to up to, and more than, 15 phone lines, depending on how big the office is. If you could only imagine how much it would cost to have those lines be connected. But, with VOiP.com’s business plan, which starts at $54.95 a month, you can actually save more from this compare with normal telephone costs. The business plan offers the following:

1. Super low international rates
2. Over 45 calling features
3. Optional upgrades
4. Free in-network calls
5. Unlimited extensions
6. Free softphone
7. Toll-free and virtual numbers
8. Free voice mail
9. Most reliable hardware included
10. Technical support
11. 30-Day satisfaction guarantee
12. PBX features

Another great thing about VOiP.com is that it allows you to have SIP Trunking wherein it allows you to connect an IP-PBX to VOiP.com’s network. SIP Trunking starts at $55 which allows unlimited inbound calls, 5 ports per trunk, DID and an overage of 2.9 cents per minute for toll free origination as well as 2 cents per minute for domestic calls.

With VOiP.com’s SIP Trunking, you get to use Asterisk, Trixbox and faxing as these have been tested and have been proven to work efficiently. In fact, there are lots of customers routing millions of minutes per month using Asterisk and/or Trixbox. Furthermore, you can also get new phone numbers, or retain your existing ones.

With a very cheap phone packages, no wonder VoIP.com is one of the most reliable and sought-after providers in service today. Internet connections have never been faster. So this is a great way to piggyback on your existing high speed internet. You can save money every month, and that translates into a substantial saving at the end of the year!

Look for more telephone service articles from Jade David in the future, she writes articles for www.Calling-Plans.com, www.Internet-Phone.com and Telephone-Service.net.

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VoIP 800 Numbers

Posted on July 28, 2011 by VoIP Master

I had someone ask me the other day what a VoIP toll free number was.

I thought about it for awhile, did a little research, and then decided there is no such thing as a VoIP 800 number… Since a VoIP phone number is a virtual number that rings to a MAC address, and a toll free number is a virtual number that rings to any phone number, then there can’t be anything that can be specified as a VoIP toll free number.

Any toll free number can ring to any VoIP number, cell phone number or  landline phone number. Heck, putting it that way, you could have a toll free number ring to another toll free number if you were willing to pay the charges from two toll free number providers. (You’d be a dork, but it’s your money LOL.)

So, that said, you can contact any regular landline phone company and they can provide you with a toll free number that will ring into your VoIP phone number, and it shouldn’t cost you more than 2.7 or 3 cents per minute. Pioneer Telephone and TCI are a couple of regular phone companies that can provide you with that service, and the toll free numbers will cost you less that $2 per month, plus the per minute charge.

Visit www.calling-plans.com for more information about phone service, local calling plans, VoIP company reviews and business phone service information.

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VoIP Dropped Calls

Posted on July 13, 2011 by VoIP Master

Question: We have Earthlink.net VoIP service and are noticing that we are getting dropped calls more frequently than in the past. Many times we can hear the other person but they cannot hear us. Do you have any knowledge of dropped calls with the various plans?  In your experience which plan seems to be the best for service and reliability?  Appreciate any help you can give us.

Answer: There are three basic things that can cause a VoIP provider to have spotty service or to drop calls. The first one is bandwidth, the second is bandwidth management and the third is the VoIP provider.

In the first one, you just don’t have enough bandwidth to keep a call going, or you’re sharing a cable bandwidth loop with your neighbors, and there just isn’t enough bandwidth to handle everybody’s internet requests. The next few times your VoIP call gets dropped, use this URL to see what internet speeds you have at your disposable: http://www.speedtest.net

The second problem is when you are in a household with other internet users and/or you’ve got your VoIP router plugged in behind your router, and you have other stiff plugged into the router too. If the VoIP company’s router isn’t plugged in next to the modem, with a wire coming out of it to your computer or to your network router, then it only gets the bandwidth that your router gives it, instead of the bandwidth it needs. If the company router is plugged into the modem, then it gets bandwidth first, then can give the rest to Jane and Little Johnny who are watching a movie on Netflix and playing Xbox Live.

The third problem could be with the settings on the VoIP company’s router, or something else, and that ones easy to fix. Just go to your VoIP company’s website and call the toll free number or click the “Click to Chat” button. They can access your router from anywhere in the world and run diagnostics software that will let them see the problem and fix it. And, if they can’t fix it, they’ll send you another router and a box to send back the old one. (I’ve done this a couple of times over the last 6 years…)

I hope this helps, and if not, then either get a Magicjack for $19.99 per year http://www.calling-plans.com/magicjack.html (if your willing to leave your computer on 24/7), or sign up with ViaTalk for $8.50 per month. http://www.calling-plans.com/viatalk-unlimited.html Viatalk will send a router that plugs into your modem, then you plug your router or computer into it.

Thanks,

Greg
PS. Those two are the cheapest, but I personally like PhonePower the best: 2 phone numbers, 2 years, $200 bucks. http://www.calling-plans.com/phonepower-unlimited.html

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Vonage Class Action Settled For $4.75 Million

Posted on May 22, 2011 by VoIP Master

If you had VoIP phone service prior to January 3, 2011, you might want to head over to the Vonage Settlement site and see if you’ve got any money coming back from Vonage. The settlement was agreed to by both parties on May 12th, and you have until July 11th to sign up for your chunk of the loot, or you won’t be included in the suit.

Here is some of the pertinent information:

The lawsuit involves Vonage’s promotional “one month free” and “money back guarantee” offers and application of certain charges (disconnection, cancellation and termination fees, and subscription fees despite requests for cancellation), which allegedly violated certain laws. Vonage strongly denies any wrongdoing, but has agreed to settle to avoid the burden and cost of further litigation. The Court has not made a decision on the merits of this case.

So, look over your old Vonage bills, and then head over to the Vonage Settlement Claim Form if you think you should get some money back…

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Vonage Offering Unlimited Calling To Mobile Phones In 42 Countries

Posted on April 18, 2011 by VoIP Master

For some reason lately, this is becoming the “Vonage Blog Network“. The last bunch of VoIP posts have been about Vonage, and no one else… So, here we go again. Vonage announced today that they are increasing the number of countries that you can call for free, from 60 to 80, and they are including cell phones in 42 of those countries. Being able to call international cell phones for free is huge, so this should definitely increase their market share.

The new offer, for calling cell phone for free, includes the UK, Australia, China, Mexico and India. The new plan will cost $54.95 plus taxes and fees, so it’s not really that competitive with other VoIP carrier’s regular plans when you just consider the countries that can be called for free, but the free cellular calling adds quite a bit of value. For more information, visit Vonage’s website and look for their World Premium Unlimited Plan.

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Vonage Extends Free Calling to Japan

Posted on March 20, 2011 by VoIP Master

Vonage is continuing their offer of free calls to Japan for their home phone service customers. According to a press release they sent out on the 18th, they said “in light of the continued uncertainty in Japan, [we] will continue to waive per-minute calling charges for customers calling from their Vonage home phones to Japan until 8:30 p.m. on April 10, 2011.”

It needs to be noted for those on the west coast that the press release is in eastern time, so  the free calling will be discontinued at 5:30 pm PDT. Vonage has extended the free calling in the past, but customers should check the Vonage website for news on the special calling program if they are going to be calling Japan after 5:30 pm PDT on the 18th of March.

Visit www.calling-plans.com for news and information on home phone service providers, VoIP phone services and international toll free conference calling.

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