Canada is a nation of immigrants. Most of us have families and friends abroad. Long distance phone bills pile every month. Since the deregulation of the communications industry few years ago they are not as significant as they used to be, but… we are still aware of long distance costs.

Specially true for mobile phone owners, where local calls are fairly non-expensive, but anything long distance would weigh on your pocket book.
How to sift through gazillion of calling cards and various 10-10-xx solutions?

A lot of calling cards are not really what they claim to be. You can encounter initiation fees and hidden charges before you know it. Some of the more sound options are: getting on the VOIP network, finding flat rate long distance plan, signing for free incoming calls plans with your mobile or buying virtual calling cards with unlimited number of calls or minutes.

So what is that VOIP )? Voice Over Internet Protocol allows to run your phone system on the computer-like network.
What are the advantages? Internet usage is non-expensive in Canada. Once you installed broadband internet connection, the rest is [almost] free. Of course, you need to purchase VOIP phones, and have some server of the phone system.
Further advantages are that VOIP phones can be moved freely on the network (from location to location), and the phone number (extension) travels with the phone, as well as all the messages stored on it. You can even unify all your communications (phone, voice mail, fax and email) in one box of Microsoft Outlook account. Neat.
It’s also very easy to add numbers to your VOIP network – as easy as plug in another phone and enter some data to a software program (providing you purchased a block of numbers from the appropriate company). A secretary can do it, without calling Bell technician to rewire anything.

Disadvantages? – VOIP network is as vulnerable as a computer network – can be hacked, infected with virus or worm or can be simply down, when internet service is down. This means that you are totally dependent on the reliability of your internet provider. This is serious weakness. When your internet is down and the phone is down, what communication is left? – just your legs, I guess… There are also some restrictions in using 911 service on VOIP.

One remedy to this is to install a semi-VOIP network. On such a network, on the inside it is a computer network with all the bells and whistles of VOIP technology, and on the outside all calls go over the plain old Bell network. This also can save some money if you are upgrading your old phone system to VOIP network, because in this solution you can use some existing Bell circuits and add new VOIP features,. It can be advantageous in a transition period from old to truly VOIP system.

VOIP is very advantageous for mid-size businesses. If you are a one-person orchestra in your small business, and are trying to run VOIP calls through your computer, you may find that often a quality of voice is poor. In this case you’d be better off using Skype. Skype is free between Skype members, and for a fee it would allow you to call landline phones. It is a very economical option, with additional perks of using video at the same time, if the person on the other side has a web camera too.

There are recently even better options than Skype for long distance calls. Pay attention to so-called virtual calling cards.
This prepaid phone service is a dream for big talkers with mobile phones. If you are not talking that much, but still would like to cut down on your phone bills, Telehop (http://www.telehop.ca/) can be an option.

And when you are yakking on the phone for hours, take a minute to count your blessings, because in many parts of the world cheap communication is still an unfulfilled dream.

hg@minibizweb.com