5 Steps To Save on Phone Calls To Landline And Cell Phones
How To Call People Who Use Traditional Telephony For Cheap
With Internet Telephony and Voice over IP, you can communicate through voice and video with people around the world for free. This is when both calling parties use the same app to communicate, like Skype or WhatsApp. But there are so many situations when the other side of the line is still on plain old landline or cellular telephony. These calls cannot be free, because traditional telephony is still relatively expensive, but you can considerably cut down your cost.
Many VoIP services and apps make money out of the cheap rates they offer for local and international calling to phone that are outside their networks.
In some cases, you can even make phone calls to landline and mobile phones for free if the destination of the calls is the US and Canada. There are several VoIP apps that allow you to do so. But when you finally have to pay, you can be smart and save a lot. Here are 5 tips to follow.
Learn about VoIP and Its Benefits
You may not have heard much about VoIP, which was a very common term a decade back. However, the technology has become more common under many other names, those of the apps and products. To be able to get the most of Voice over IP and cut down your cost, you need to learn at least the basics, appreciate the benefits, understand the pitfalls and subsequently work out what works best for you. In one sentence, VoIP allows you to make and receive voice and video calls over the Internet for free or very cheap, with lots of other features than enhance your communication experience.
Chance is that you are already making big use of VoIP and reaping its benefits without actually realizing. If you are the hundreds of millions of people using Skype or WhatsApp then you are head on. But there are things beyond the free service that will interest you.
Assess What You Need and What You Have
There are some requirements for using Voice over IP. Among the requirements are:
Most of you may already have every in the list. Any missing item is easily available, save for the online payment methods for youngsters who are still financially dependent. But if you are reading this article online, you most probably are adequately equipped.
The connectivity will add up to your total cost if instead of Wi-Fi or ADSL, you are having a data plan for your smartphone. So you need to have a rough idea on what one minute of Internet calling will cost you in terms of mobile data.
Know Where Your Contact is Located
When it comes to paid Internet calls, it is important to know where the number you are calling to is located. VoIP rates vary depending on the destination area, as the VoIP service has to handle the cost of transition from free Internet to paid landline or cellular network. Each country and operator has its own tariff and policies.
There are two extremes. On the one end, there is the US and countries with developed communication networks, to which calls are very cheap.
This is how some services can offer free calls to the US and Canada. Other services offer very low rates to these countries as well as some countries in Europe, to Korea, India, Chine and other huge markets; rates that can go down to as little as one dollar cent per minute or even less. On the other end, there are countries with very little development in telecommunications, or with prohibitive laws and policies regarding VoIP. Rates to these destinations often go beyond what is charged for traditional calls. For these destinations, VoIP calls are not recommended. Then there is the mass of other places to which the rates vary. You then need to calculate and work out the worthiness of adopting VoIP for calling there.
To know what a minute of call to one particular location will cost you, browse to the page for rates of the service you selected. It should give you the exact rates for each location. Often this is independent on the location from where the call originates, but depends on the destination.
By location here, I mean local whereabouts. As we have seen, the cost of VoIP calls does not depend on the caller's location, but on the callee's. But where you are will often determine whether your call can be free or not. If you are at home or in the office, with ADSL connection or WiFi hotspot, go for VoIP. If you are on the move and mobile data coverage is not good enough, VoIP can prove less economic and efficient than traditional telephony.
You don't want to initiate a call that can drop several times, or that will consume so much of your mobile data while giving you a bad call experience.
If you are really into calling international numbers and communicating often, it pays to stay abreast with the offers and plans that different VoIP operators, especially those you selected, have to offer. Browse their sites and check their plans, and read reviews about them. For instance, if you call frequently to one particular destination, you will want to check those plans that offer a flat rate for unlimited calls to that destination, which could prove much more economical than paying per minute for the calls.
Here are some basic examples you can check:
Skype Worldwide rates - check the subscription part [https://secure.skype.com/en/calling-rates]
Ooma, which offers free calls to the US and Canada once you buy their hardware
Vonage Anywhere plan
More services and plans
With Internet Telephony and Voice over IP, you can communicate through voice and video with people around the world for free. This is when both calling parties use the same app to communicate, like Skype or WhatsApp. But there are so many situations when the other side of the line is still on plain old landline or cellular telephony. These calls cannot be free, because traditional telephony is still relatively expensive, but you can considerably cut down your cost.
Many VoIP services and apps make money out of the cheap rates they offer for local and international calling to phone that are outside their networks.
In some cases, you can even make phone calls to landline and mobile phones for free if the destination of the calls is the US and Canada. There are several VoIP apps that allow you to do so. But when you finally have to pay, you can be smart and save a lot. Here are 5 tips to follow.
Learn about VoIP and Its Benefits
You may not have heard much about VoIP, which was a very common term a decade back. However, the technology has become more common under many other names, those of the apps and products. To be able to get the most of Voice over IP and cut down your cost, you need to learn at least the basics, appreciate the benefits, understand the pitfalls and subsequently work out what works best for you. In one sentence, VoIP allows you to make and receive voice and video calls over the Internet for free or very cheap, with lots of other features than enhance your communication experience.
Chance is that you are already making big use of VoIP and reaping its benefits without actually realizing. If you are the hundreds of millions of people using Skype or WhatsApp then you are head on. But there are things beyond the free service that will interest you.
Assess What You Need and What You Have
There are some requirements for using Voice over IP. Among the requirements are:
- A communicating device, which could be your computer, tablet or smartphone. Anything running Windows, Windows Phone, Android, iOS, Linux, and BlackBerry will do.
- A good Internet connection, adequate for at least voice calls. Anything better than dial-up will do, and a decent ADSL will rock.
- A VoIP app to manage the calls and other related stuff on your communicating device.
- A VoIP service that is often behind the app you use. You need to be a registered member of the service.
- A credit card or another way to make payments online. However little the amount of money required is, you still have to settle payment.
Most of you may already have every in the list. Any missing item is easily available, save for the online payment methods for youngsters who are still financially dependent. But if you are reading this article online, you most probably are adequately equipped.
The connectivity will add up to your total cost if instead of Wi-Fi or ADSL, you are having a data plan for your smartphone. So you need to have a rough idea on what one minute of Internet calling will cost you in terms of mobile data.
Know Where Your Contact is Located
When it comes to paid Internet calls, it is important to know where the number you are calling to is located. VoIP rates vary depending on the destination area, as the VoIP service has to handle the cost of transition from free Internet to paid landline or cellular network. Each country and operator has its own tariff and policies.
There are two extremes. On the one end, there is the US and countries with developed communication networks, to which calls are very cheap.
This is how some services can offer free calls to the US and Canada. Other services offer very low rates to these countries as well as some countries in Europe, to Korea, India, Chine and other huge markets; rates that can go down to as little as one dollar cent per minute or even less. On the other end, there are countries with very little development in telecommunications, or with prohibitive laws and policies regarding VoIP. Rates to these destinations often go beyond what is charged for traditional calls. For these destinations, VoIP calls are not recommended. Then there is the mass of other places to which the rates vary. You then need to calculate and work out the worthiness of adopting VoIP for calling there.
To know what a minute of call to one particular location will cost you, browse to the page for rates of the service you selected. It should give you the exact rates for each location. Often this is independent on the location from where the call originates, but depends on the destination.
By location here, I mean local whereabouts. As we have seen, the cost of VoIP calls does not depend on the caller's location, but on the callee's. But where you are will often determine whether your call can be free or not. If you are at home or in the office, with ADSL connection or WiFi hotspot, go for VoIP. If you are on the move and mobile data coverage is not good enough, VoIP can prove less economic and efficient than traditional telephony.
You don't want to initiate a call that can drop several times, or that will consume so much of your mobile data while giving you a bad call experience.
If you are really into calling international numbers and communicating often, it pays to stay abreast with the offers and plans that different VoIP operators, especially those you selected, have to offer. Browse their sites and check their plans, and read reviews about them. For instance, if you call frequently to one particular destination, you will want to check those plans that offer a flat rate for unlimited calls to that destination, which could prove much more economical than paying per minute for the calls.
Here are some basic examples you can check:
Skype Worldwide rates - check the subscription part [https://secure.skype.com/en/calling-rates]
Ooma, which offers free calls to the US and Canada once you buy their hardware
Vonage Anywhere plan
More services and plans
Source...