Where To Find The Best VoIP Service Providers

The latest buzz words in the world of today’s communication are Internet telephony, IP telephony, or VoIP. VoIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol and it is one of the newest technologies that links people together in our fast changing world.

Telephone was, for quite some time, a good communication solution for businesses, but its high costs made it an expense that mattered. With VoIP, people can turn their backs on the old telephone and switch to Internet to cut down their expenses. The need for communication grows, and so the need for affordable services. VoIP does that and this is the main reason for its popularity.

When you can make a call to an international number, and pay only 3 cents a minute, then it is a good deal. This deal is brought to people by VoIP, a service that now has a greater quality than that provided by telephone companies.

The regular telephone companies have started to lose terrain to competitors for some time now, as cellular phones and other technological advances, such as VoIP appeared on the market. The competition is fierce and the new technology is expected to replace the old one. Consumers everywhere wish for better and faster means of communication, which means that VoIP has a future laid out nicely ahead. In this ever changing world, many things can happen and communication is just another facet.

Many benefits can be drawn from using VoIP and they become more and more popular each day.

If you wish to get a plan from VoIP service providers, you need to keep in mind which are your purposes for this service. If you run a small business, you will need business VoIP, but if you are a regular consumer, a free provider may be just the thing for you. There are also cable VoIP providers, satellite VoIP providers and consumer VoIP providers.

Here are the major players on this market.

Get a Business Plan

If you need VoIP for your business, then Cisco Systems is the name you should look for. Other VoIP providers for business persons, like Asterisk, offer a PBX system that is compatible with BSD, Linux, OS X and Windows. Another great PBX system is Packet8, that also caters to individual consumers. Among VoIP service providers for business, we also find Alcatel, a company that is specialized in offering communication solutions for small firms, Internet providers and companies involved in telecommunication.

VoIP is not a stranger for Siemens, a company that offers such services through DSL. Another player is Nortell, which uses packet networks to make great offers for telephony carriers and multimedia professionals.

Which are the best cable providers?

Reputation is a must when we browse through VoIP providers. Time Warner is one the companies whose reputation stays in figures. And what figures! Almost 10,000 people a day choose a plan offered by them, making this firm a very important player. Others, like Cablevision, are just rising, but they move forward pretty fast. Former regular cable phone service carriers seize the opportunity to make their own name on the VoIP market, like Cox Communications. Comcast, which comes from the same background, also seeks to make its mark with VoIP.

The well known names of residential providers

The residential market is one that many companies try to make their claims for. So far, it seems that Vonage wins the battle, but other VoIP service providers fight for a portion of this market. Packet8 entered the homes of its clients with an fixed price offer that includes free unlimited calls in Canada and the United States. All the features one would expect to pay for with traditional phone lines, are free with this company. A practical and economical plan is also offered by Lingo. You can call to Canada, United States and many countries in Europe, all for a monthly fee. But many say that Lingo provides lower quality services than Packet8.

The extension of satellite providers

There are still areas on the globes where phones are not something ordinary, like in some regions in Africa, Asia, Australia or the Middle East. People living there have a hard time trying to communicate between themselves and with the rest of the world. This market is now conquered by satellite providers, like Net2Phone and Hughes Electronics. With VoIP services offered by such companies, as well as others, like Vonage and Skyframes, communication is made easier and more efficient.

Solutions for everyone: free providers

Free providers enjoy a great popularity among consumers because their offers cannot be refused. One of the most popular names is Skype, a service that grants free peer-to peer calls for any of its clients. Not only that they offer free services, but they also give great deals on computer to cell phones and regular phones calls. Online telephony for free is also the credo of an ISP called Earthlink, which is known to be the first ISP to do that. All the clients of Earthlink can enjoy this opportunity, made possible by a special protocol, called Session Initiation Protocol.