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Phone Cards
Countries Calling from
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Calling Patterns: Consider the price for making calls at different times of the
day. Do you make most of your calls during the day, night, or on weekends? What is your
average volume? Do you call mostly within your state, outside your state, or to other countries?
Monthly Fees: When an ad promises 5 cents a minute, look for any monthly fees or
surcharges you have to pay to get that rate.
Minimum Charges: Look for minimum charges for each call. If every call has a 50 cent
minimum, even a two minute call can cost you 50 cents. On "up to 20 minutes for a dollar" plans,
a one minute call or a message you leave on an answering machine is a dollar.
Climbing Rates: An ad may say that all calls up to 20 minutes cost a dollar. Look for
information on what happens to the rate structure after 20 minutes. The rate may increase
dramatically.
Billing increments: It is the block of time in which the length of call is rounded up to. The more established billing increment is rounded up to the nearest minute. In other words if a 9 minute 11 second call is made its rounded up to 10 minutes. Many companies are now offering billing increments rounded to the nearest second.
FCC fees: There is a flat fee known as the PICC fee. This be should be around $1.10 for a primary residential line.
There is another fee known as the universal service fund. This is a charge of 4% on interstate and international calls.
Long Distance Available in
Alabama,
Alaska,
Arizona,
Arkansas,
California,
Colorado,
Connecticut,
Delaware,
District of Columbia,
Florida,
Georgia,
Hawaii,
Idaho,
Illinois,
Indiana,
Iowa,
Kansas,
Kentucky,
Louisiana,
Maine,
Maryland,
Massachusetts,
Michigan,
Minnesota,
Mississippi,
Missouri,
Montana,
Nebraska,
Nevada,
New Hampshire,
New Jersey,
New Mexico,
New York,
North Carolina,
North Dakota,
Ohio,
Oklahoma,
Oregon,
Pennsylvania,
Rhode Island,
South Carolina,
South Dakota,
Tennessee,
Texas,
Utah,
Vermont,
Virginia,
Washington,
West Virginia,
Wisconsin,
Wyoming
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| Compare Long Distance Plans |
(Domestic & International)
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VoIP has become a major industry thanks to the efforts of startups like Vonage and Skype, which have led innovation in the VoIP market. But VoIP's success has not escaped notice of the folks who supply your normal dial tone, and some have decided to also venture into this brave new world. Verizon is one such company with its VoiceWing service aimed at home users.
Below is the list of telecommunication companies that provide long distance service for residences and small businesses. You can choose any of them to be your primary long distance carrier, which means the company will handle all the calls that you make by dialing 1 + the phone number you are calling.
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Enjoy Prepaid
The Convenience of Long Distance & Savings of a Phone Card
Enjoy Prepaid is a New and Better alternate for your Long Distance and International Calls. Presently 2 Plans are available, EZ Plans and Power Plans with and without monthly charges.Rates start at .029/min and No Surcharges.
[Underlying Carrier: Multiple]
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Vonage Voip Plan Unlimited Long Distance at a fraction of the price
Using an existing high-speed Internet connection, Vonage technology enables anyone to make and receive phone calls - worldwide - with a touch-tone telephone. Offering quality phone service bundled with enhanced IP communications services, our interactive communications portal is a gateway to advanced features only available through digital telephone service. Utilizing our global network and advanced routing technologies, Vonage offers an innovative, feature-rich and cost effective alternative to traditional telephony services.. Vonage coupons
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Verizon Broadband Calling Unlimited Long Distance at Low Rate
Verizon currently offers two VoiceWing service plans (Figure 1). The first is 500 minutes of long distance within the United States and Canada for $19.95 a month, with additional calls over 500 minutes costing 4 cents a minute. The other plan provides unlimited call time to anywhere in the U.S and Canada for $34.95 a month. As a comparison, Vonage's closest equivalents would be 500 minutes for $14.99 a month and unlimited for $24.99 a month. Verizon also offers a five dollar discount per month for the first year on the unlimited plan if you are a current Verizon DSL subscriber or sign up for Verizon DSL with the VoIP service.
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SunRocket Internet Phone Service $199 per year and get unlimited calling
SunRocket brings you new choices, better value, and ultimate control of your home phone service. Powered by the Internet and designed to replace the overpriced, obsolete services from your old phone company, SunRocket.com Internet Phone Service harnesses your home high-speed connection to deliver a radically better suite of customized features at an amazing value. You can join SunRocket.com today for less than $17 a month and get: unlimited calling in the U.S. and to Canada, free international minutes, free extra phone number, over 10 enhanced calling features, two free Directory Assistance calls each month, bottom-line pricing, and a 31 day risk-free guarantee.
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| Choose your long distance carefully |
(As with all purchases, read the fine print)
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Since deregulation consumers have the ability to choose their "Dial 1" telephone carrier. However the process of moving can be confusing. Here we outline the process so you can better understand what is happening when you change your carrier. Your local telephone company maintains the wires that run into your home or business, however they do not have to carry your phone calls.
Their switches will automatically route your calls to the carrier of your choice. The carrier that carries your calls is named the "Pre-subscribed carrier" and sometimes referred to as the "PIC-ed" carrier. There are basically couple types of long distance service.
Long Distance: which is generally any call made across your state, state-to-state and internationally.
Local Long Distance: sometimes referred to as Intralata or Regional Toll Calling, which is the area just beyond your local free area, but not far enough to be called intrastate.
Many times your Local Telephone Company carries your Intralata service. Check your Local Telephone Bill. If you see a call detail charging you for toll calls within your area code, then your intra-lata service is being handled by your Local Telephone Company. This division of services further confuses customers and many do not realize that intra-lata or toll calls can be handled by the Long Distance Carrier if their rate is better and if the customer designates. Often, the
Long Distance Carrier can offer you better rates on intralata than your Local Telephone Company. Your Local Telephone Company does not want you to know this because they will lose revenue if you request your intralata service be switched to the Long Distance Company.
Whether you make only one or two calls a month - or hundreds of calls - there is a long distance plan for you. While the long distance marketplace can be overwhelming, a little bit of consumer education can help a long way in saving money. Following are some of the major selection criteria.
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| International Phone Cards |
Calling from
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