Ever looked at your home phone bill in disbelief and wondered why it was so high and what some of the charges were for?
Well you are not alone. The average household has a phone bill in excess of $60 each month with the majority of them not using the most efficient "packages" available from their phone company. Phone bills are littered with taxes and surcharges and extra features such as call waiting, caller ID and call forwarding all add additional charges to your bill.
This is where a low cost home phone service such as VoIP can help you. This service is also referred to as Broadband Phone, Digital Phone or Internet Phone service and is not subject to the high government taxes and surcharges that your normal landline phone service has.
Providers do not charge you additional fees for each and every feature. Instead there is typically a set monthly fee for your internet phone service which includes a vast array of features. For this reason it is an extremely cheap home phone service. The other reason why VoIP is such a low cost phone service and results in significant savings, is that the plans typically include long distance phone service, all included in your billing cycle. One monthly fee gets you phone service for local and long distance service. Do you make international calls ? No problem many providers also have a set monthly fee that includes international calls to particular regions of the world (e.g. Western Europe) all for one set monthly fee.
The following table provides a typical monthly price comparison for phone rates between a regular landline service and a typical VoIP plan. This should give you an idea of the type of savings you can expect by switching over to VoIP for your home phone service:
| Itemized Bill | $/mo | VoIP $/mo |
|---|---|---|
| Line rental | $12 | $0 |
| Surcharges and other fees | $6 | $0 |
| Federal taxes | $1 | $0 |
| 400 minute/month local package | $10 | $0 |
| Additional local minutes | $5 | $0 |
| Long distance package | $10 | $0 |
| Long distance taxes and surcharges | $1 | $0 |
| Additional long distance minutes | $5 | $0 |
| Caller ID | $6 | $0 |
| Call waiting | $3 | $0 |
| Call forwarding | $3 | $0 |
| Total Cost Per Month | $62 | $9.99 * |
| Total Annual Cost | $744.00 | $119.88 |
* This is a typical VoIP unlimited local and long distance phone plan. However, look at the comparison table on this page, by paying up-front for your service this could be reduced to around $6/month and even give you an extra year of service for free!
With this type of phone service you get very cheap phone bills resulting in a large cost saving per month with the added benefit of receiving a number of terrific features for free.
To summarize, VoIP services offer the following advantages over a traditional phone service:
- Providers have fixed monthly low cost phone plans for your home. Save over $500 per year in many cases.
- The service often includes free unlimited local and long distance phone minutes, all for one fixed price per month or year.
- Some plans also include international calls in the fixed monthly bill or provide extremely low rates per minute.
- Providers offer an extensive list of features at no extra charge.
You may have already realized that there are a lot of low cost VoIP plans available and more are appearing each day due to the fast growth and popularity of this technology. The only problem you may have is choosing the right plan that fits your needs best. That is why we are here. Our residential providers page will help you select the best solution for your needs, so start saving today!
Also check out our guide to many of the VoIP Features available from the service providers covered on our site.
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