All you need to do is to sign up, download a simple and small software called “softphone” from the website, dial your friends, relatives, loved ones or whoever and get talking..! No holds barred..!

Excellent voice quality with cutting edge features like Call Hold, Forward, Block, Caller Id, Conference calling, Missed call alerts, Call history, instant messaging, Account recharge options, call recording, Balance check etc make Reliance iCall the only one of its kind in the VOIP industry. Although the limitation of 20 countries under the current 1c per minute scheme is not a real stopper, it is slated to increase in a few weeks.

Coverage at 1c per minute is available on calls to mobiles and landlines is available in Canada, Thailand, Israel, USA, India and China. It is also available on calls to landlines in New Zealand, Spain, Germany, UK, Italy, Malaysia, Sweden, Taiwan, Australia, Switzerland, a few cities in Colombia and Denmark

Save money, talk more at only 1c a minute on Reliance iCall.

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Best quality international calls at never before rates

I called my friend in England just the other day. We talked for about half an hour and it didn’t cost either of us a nickel. Free and clear as crystal, I used my computer. Nothing fancy, just a simple sound card, speakers and microphone is all I needed.

If you haven’t heard about Voice over IP yet, you most definitely will soon. There are several different methods to the crazed digital telephony protocol that could change the way you make calls and save you a bundle.

What is VOIP?

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is the concept for managing the delivery of voice information in digital format through the Internet rather then conventional voice telephone lines. In the simplest form, VoIP turns any computer into a telephone.

Although there are complex and costly ways to do this in the enterprise level, there are also simple, nearly free ways do use VoIP on the personal level. All that’s required is a broadband Internet connection of some type. Now I am not here to advertise for any single organization selling VoIP equipment or services, but just to let you know, there are some that offer very nice package deals with equipment, Internet phones, headsets and all the fixings of standard enterprise phone systems. There are also software based systems that operate like your everyday chat systems and require only computer speakers and a microphone.

Why would I want this?

One major advantage of VoIP and Internet telephony is that it avoids the tolls charged by ordinary telephone services that use the standard public switched telephone network. Sure Pac Bell and ATT don’t like the sounds of that, not unless they figure out how to jump on the bandwagon and capitalize on this somewhat new form of technology. Actually VoIP has been around for a while, yet it is starting to pick up speed now as an alternative means of communication. And the primary reason is that it will save you money.

Another money saving fact about VoIP is that since VoIP utilizes your broadband Internet connection for its delivery, customers do not pay Federal USF and FCC Line Charges and pay lower Federal Excise Tax.

WI-FI and VoIP

Now we’re getting serious! Where is this going? Can it really compete with the cell phone? Well, at this time the wireless technology has some security risks and setup difficulties to overcome before it becomes a significant player in the game. But on a local, enterprise level, we are not far off.

What is the bottom line?

If you are tired of lofty telephone bills, perhaps there is a solution for you that will help with this years budget. You don’t need to transform your entire phone system to utilize the benefits of VoIP. Start small and learn its potential. If you are looking for low cost voip phones, try Hardware Gods or PC Hardware Auction

A Rule for the Road:

Keep up with technology or else technology will pass you by; and the ignorance will cost you more than you will know.

Source:http://www.voipchoices.com

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Voice Over IP – Saving Money

VoIP works by converting your voice into data, transmitting it over the Internet, and then converting it back into a voice stream so that it can be played on any telephone in the world – almost in the same way your computer transmits email over the Internet.

Less expensive than traditional phones, and convenient — you just use your computer or a VoIP-ready phone and a broadband Internet connection to make your calls — VoIP makes for good economic sense. Around for a decade now, VoIP has overcome teething problems to come of age, using advances in PC and IP technology to provide voice quality telephone calls at low Internet rates.

Rising Popularity

International and state-to-state calls, expensive on conventional phone systems, are available at lower prices on VoIP. Finding this cost saving and its voice quality attractive, more home users and businesses are choosing to opt for VoIP.

But, to work well, VoIP needs a good bandwidth connection, such as broadband cable or DSL. Freely accessible nowadays — 22% of Americans use broadband right now and the numbers are rising each day — analysts estimate that 50% of Americans will use VoIP in the next two to three years.

The Ins and Outs of VoIP

To use VoIP, you need a broadband connection (either cable or DSL), a regular phone or computer microphone, and a special VoIP router adaptor to connect your phone to the Internet. And, you’ll also need the services of a VoIP service provider, such as Vonage or Skype. Depending on the service you use, you can either use the telephone connected to the VoIP router, or call directly from your computer using your computer’s microphone and speaker.

Your call connects to your VoIP service provider, and they route the call to the phone number you dialed, converting the VoIP data into a plain old telephone call before reaching its destination. This is how you connect to any telephone in the world, regardless of whether the person you are calling is using VoIP or plain old telephone service.

There are a number of different companies that offer VoIP services. But make sure they provide good voice quality and reliable support, and comply with Industry Standards. Ask potential service providers about the security controls they use to ensure your data and identity is safe and not open to hackers or virus attacks. You can test several trial downloads before you choose your VoIP service provider, and you can always visit user forums on the Internet to check out the kind of problems that customers experience with these service providers.

Cost Factors

Right now, VoIP is fairly inexpensive, averaging around $15 – $65 per month. This is because the VoIP industry enjoys special tax breaks and other privileges. These privileges may be withdrawn in the future, though lobbyists are trying hard not to let that happen. In any case, VoIP is likely to become less expensive as more people turn to it in the future.

In addition, there are a number of free VoIP service providers (who usually have some paid upgraded services) that will allow you to make free VoIP calls among the users of their network. For example, if you sign up for the free Skype service, you can connect with any other Skype user and talk for free.  If you have questions about what service to choose, I suggest you ask at a popular forum such as PC Hangout

VoIP – the Pluses and Minuses

Apart from the ease of use, people choose VoIP because it is inexpensive, letting them “phone-trot” any wherever they want to without having to worry about the length of a call, how often you call, or the cost when the bill arrives. Additionally, with some VoIP services, there are no fixed monthly charges to pay, like a regular phone.

On the other hand, if your Internet connection is down, your Internet phone is inoperable as well. And, slow IP connections can hamper VoIP transmissions, causing problems like echoes, delayed response times or voice failure. It’s the sort of thing that happens when you find it difficult to connect to the Web, or can’t download a file, only it affects VoIP more.

Still, with the advances made in VoIP technology over the past year or so, and the growing momentum with consumers, VoIP is definitely worth looking into for your home. There’s even a site that will let you test whether your home broadband connection is ready for VoIP. Just go to www.TestYourVoIP.com, and test your home broadband connection in less than 5 minutes for free.

So take a chance and look into VoIP. You may be surprised at how much money you can save every month on phone services — and you can brag about your technical savvy to friends, co-workers, and neighbors!

Source: http://www.voipchoices.com

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Is My Home Ready for VoIP?

How does a VoIP Virtual Telephone number work? When you order VoIP service, generally you will get 1 telephone number along with unlimited local and long distance (Calls to any U.S. and Canadian telephone number are free) calling for around $20-$25 dollars a month. You can choose to add on as many VoIP Virtual Telephone numbers in different markets as you wish for less than $5 each. All of these Virtual Telephone numbers will ring your VoIP telephone Let’s say that your office is in Los Angeles where your primary VoIP telephone number has a 310 area code. You have a few clients in Chicago in the 732 area code. You can get a virtual phone number in area code 732 that rings to your 310 line. Now your clients don’t have to pay long distance charges when they call you.

Sample Business Application

Suppose you’re a Kite manufacturer like Extreme Kite Shop based in San Francisco, California while your biggest customers are located in Miami FL; San Diego, Ca; and Chicago, IL. All you pay is the small monthly fee for the three different virtual phone numbers, each with an area code of the three different hubs of your business activity. Now, your customers never have to dial long distance to place an order and they feel you are right next door.

In addition to making it cheaper and easier for your callers to phone a virtual number in their same area code, even if you or your business reside thousands of miles away, virtual numbers can also enhance a small organization’s ability to manage incoming calls.

The above are only a couple examples of how Virtual telephone numbers can help VoIP business customers. The possibilities are endless. You just need to get creative.

Source:http://www.voipchoices.com

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Benefit your Business with VoIP

With VoIP, the promise is the ability to make local and global long distance calls at a significantly lower rate than over a plain old telephone line through your local carrier. The VoIP trend has caught on and large enterprises all over the globe are adopting this new technology to reduce their cost of business communications which may include fax, conference calling, along with streaming video applications. VoIP has been around for some time, but it has only been until recently that it has finally matured to the stage worthy of replacing everyday phone use.

At the household level, it is certain by now that you are compelled to embrace this technology somewhat, but are not sure how to go about it or even if this technology has any real benefit for your family. You are probably wondering, “How much? How difficult? Is it necessary?” This article hopefully will clear up a few unanswered questions you may have regarding this technology and maybe even excite you enough to go on out and get VoIP hooked up in your own home.

First off, you must have an Internet connection. No, not your 56k dial up connection, but an actual high speed Internet connection. This can be cable, satellite, or DSL Internet, but you will need high speed Internet for VoIP to function properly and become your new calling station. Dialup just doesn’t have the capacity or speed to transfer voice digitally without significant quality loss. A company named SpeakEasy has recently come out with a new DSL product that requires no current phone line for high speed Internet if DSL is your current favorite of broadband services and if you are planning on replacing your current phone service with VoIP.

Secondly you will need what is called a gateway. The gateway is connected between your computer and Ethernet modem. The VoIP gateway is where your phone line will be plugged into. Gateways enable freedom from possible computer problems that can shut down calling capabilities or deteriorate voice quality. Computer crashes, slow memory, and many other computer problems that plague us in everyday life, you do not want to plague your ability to make phone calls.

Gateways are specifically designed for VoIP phones but adapters are available for current phones should you not want to buy a brand new phone. VoIP providers usually have the adapters available for sale so you don’t have to shop around for one yourself. Before you write off buying a new phone however, video phones are the newest product line and it won’t be long before this trend explodes. You may want to get your video phone so you aren’t left out of exciting face to face conversations with friends and relatives when they get theirs. Packet8 VoIP has a good video phone sold separately with their services.

The services included with VoIP usually include all the convenient bells and whistles your current phone service provides including your own local VoIP telephone number, call waiting, voice messaging, 3 way calling, and more.

There are some important things to remember with VoIP before you go diving in to this feature rich voice technology. You should check with your VoIP provider for local 911 emergency coverage. Some VoIP providers charge extra on a monthly basis for both 911 and 411 access so make sure you know how much it is going to cost you before committing to a calling contract.

One last important thing to remember is that your gateway is reliant on electricity to function. This means power outages will put your phone line out of service, but then isn’t your phone already only functional with electricity these days?  If you’re worried about power outtages, you should pickup a battery backup from a place like Bully Tech or PC Hardware Outlet

SOURCE:http://www.voipchoices.com

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Is VoIP Good For The Home?

• First of all, VoIP is dependant on wall power. Your current phone runs on phantom power that is provided over the line from the central office. Even if your power goes out, your phone (unless it is a cordless) still works. With VoIP, no power means no phone. A stable power source must be created for VoIP.
• Another consideration is that many other systems in your home may be integrated into the phone line. Digital video recorders, digital subscription TV services and home security systems all use a standard phone line to do their thing. There’s currently no way to integrate these products with VoIP. The related industries are going to have to get together to make this work.
• Emergency 911 calls also become a challenge with VoIP. As stated before, VoIP uses IP-addressed phone numbers, not NANP phone numbers. There’s no way to associate a geographic location with an IP address. So if the caller can’t tell the 911 operator where he is located, then there’s no way to know which call center to route the emergency call to and which EMS should respond. To fix this, perhaps geographical information could somehow be integrated into the packets.
• Because VoIP uses an Internet connection, it’s susceptible to all the hiccups normally associated with home broadband services. All of these factors affect call quality:
  • Latency
  • Jitter
  • Packet loss

  Phone conversations can become distorted, garbled or lost because of transmission errors. Some kind of stability in Internet data transfer needs to be guaranteed before VoIP could truly replace traditional phones.

• VoIP is susceptible to worms, viruses and hacking, although this is very rare and VoIP developers are working on VoIP encryption to counter this.
• Another issue associated with VoIP is having a phone system dependant on individual PCs of varying specifications and power. A call can be affected by processor drain. Let’s say you are chatting away on your softphone, and you decide to open a program that saps your processor. Quality loss will become immediately evident. In a worst case scenario, your system could crash in the middle of an important call. In VoIP, all phone calls are subject to the limitations of normal computer issues.   A more through description of power drain and capacitors can be found here.

One of the hurdles that was overcome some time ago was the conversion of the analog audio signal your phone receives into packets of data. How it is that analog audio is turned into packets for VoIP transmission? The answer is codecs.

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Disadvantages of Using VoIP

Let’s say that you and your friend both have service through a VoIP provider. You both have your analog phones hooked up to the service-provided ATAs. Let’s take another look at that typical telephone call, but this time using VoIP over a packet-switched network:

1. You pick up the receiver, which sends a signal to the ATA.
2. The ATA receives the signal and sends a dial tone. This lets you know that you have a connection to the Internet.
3. You dial the phone number of the party you wish to talk to. The tones are converted by the ATA into digital data and temporarily stored.
4. The phone number data is sent in the form of a request to your VoIP company’s call processor. The call processor checks it to ensure that it’s in a valid format.
5. The call processor determines to whom to map the phone number. In mapping, the phone number is translated to an IP address (more on this later). The soft switch connects the two devices on either end of the call. On the other end, a signal is sent to your friend’s ATA, telling it to ask the connected phone to ring.
6. Once your friend picks up the phone, a session is established between your computer and your friend’s computer. This means that each system knows to expect packets of data from the other system. In the middle, the normal Internet infrastructure handles the call as if it were e-mail or a Web page. Each system must use the same protocol to communicate. The systems implement two channels, one for each direction, as part of the session.
7. You talk for a period of time. During the conversation, your system and your friend’s system transmit packets back and forth when there is data to be sent. The ATAs at each end translate these packets as they are received and convert them to the analog audio signal that you hear. Your ATA also keeps the circuit open between itself and your analog phone while it forwards packets to and from the IP host at the other end.
8. You finish talking and hang up the receiver.
9. When you hang up, the circuit is closed between your phone and the ATA.
10. The ATA sends a signal to the soft switch connecting the call, terminating the session.

Probably one of the most compelling advantages of packet switching is that data networks already understand the technology. By migrating to this technology, telephone networks immediately gain the ability to communicate the way computers do. It will still be at least a decade before communications companies can make the full switch over to VoIP. As with all emerging technologies, there are certain hurdles that have to be overcome. We’ll look at those in the next section.

If you’re interested in a more traditional education on VOIP, check out come learn with us.

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Advantages of Using VoIP

Although it will take some time, you can be sure that eventually all of the current circuit-switched networks will be replaced with packet-switching technology (more on packet switching and circuit switching later). IP telephony just makes sense, in terms of both economics and infrastructure requirements. More and more businesses are installing VoIP systems, and the technology will continue to grow in popularity as it makes its way into our homes. Perhaps the biggest draws to VoIP for the home users that are making the switch are price and flexibility.

Photographer: Showface | Agency: Dreamstime VoIP phone users can make calls from anywhere there’s a broadband connection.

With VoIP, you can make a call from anywhere you have broadband connectivity. Since the IP phones or ATAs broadcast their info over the Internet, they can be administered by the provider anywhere there’s a connection. So business travelers can take their phones or ATAs with them on trips and always have access to their home phone. Another alternative is the softphone. A softphone is client software that loads the VoIP service onto your desktop or laptop. The Vonage softphone has an interface on your screen that looks like a traditional telephone. As long as you have a headset/microphone, you can place calls from your laptop anywhere in the broadband-connected world.

Most VoIP companies are offering minute-rate plans structured like cell phone bills for as little as $30 per month. On the higher end, some offer unlimited plans for $79. With the elimination of unregulated charges and the suite of free features that are included with these plans, it can be quite a savings.

Most VoIP companies provide the features that normal phone companies charge extra for when they are added to your service plan. VoIP includes:

• Caller ID
• Call waiting
• Call transfer
• Repeat dial
• Return call
• Three-way calling

There are also advanced call-filtering options available from some carriers. These features use caller ID information to allow you make a choice about how calls from a particular number are handled. You can:

• Forward the call to a particular number
• Send the call directly to voice mail
• Give the caller a busy signal
• Play a “not-in-service” message
• Send the caller to a funny rejection hotline

With many VoIP services, you can also check voice mail via the Web or attach messages to an e-mail that is sent to your computer or handheld. Not all VoIP services offer all of the features above. Prices and services vary, so if you’re interested, it’s best to do a little shopping.

Now that we’ve looked at VoIP in a general sense, let’s look more closely at the components that make the system work. To understand how VoIP really works and why it’s an improvement over the traditional phone system, it helps to first understand how a traditional phone system works.

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Using VoIP

How is this useful? VoIP can turn a standard Internet connection into a way to place free phone calls. The practical upshot of this is that by using some of the free VoIP software that is available to make Internet phone calls, you’re bypassing the phone company (and its charges) entirely.