Using VoIP at home brings many benefits. The following are just some of the reasons how home users can benefit from VoIP.
Long Distance Savings
Most VoIP providers offer packages from 200 to unlimited minutes per month. These calls do not differentiate between interstate, intrastate, or local calls within North America. In fact, the minutes apply to both local and long distance calls within North America.
Many Choices of Area Codes
VoIP customers may choose their phone number from many area codes (even in US/Canada), regardless of where they live or where the ATA (analog telephone adapter) is used. For example, you may choose a telephone number with the area code 212 for New York, but use the phone in Seattle. Your friends living in New York will be able to call you, without incurring long distance charges.
Free Functions and Features
Many VoIP providers offer free features such as caller ID or call forwarding for free, as value-added features. The exception is AT&T, which seems to nickle and dime consumers each month for these services, just as traditional non-VoIP telecom providers do.
Cheap Secondary Line
In order to ‘try out’ VoIP, consumers may subscribe to VoIP as a secondary phone line for their teenagers or home-based business. In fact, once they have tested VoIP’s reliability, they may consider porting their primary line to VoIP as well.
- Limited Minutes: Consumers have a limited number of minutes (for example, 300 minutes they may use per month). Once they are over this limit, they may be charged overages, but these rates should be lower than regular long distance rates.
- International Calling Bundles: Certain providers have begun bundling minutes for calling international countries. These countries are usually geographically close to each other, and are developed countries. Examples include Western Europe package, where one may call countries such as Belgium, France, UK landlines all for free. Please note that calling mobile numbers are often not part of the included minutes, while landline numbers are.
Free In-network Calls (for some providers only)
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