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by Mark Sullivan

Did you know you could be throwing away money each month by using traditional phone services? There are plenty alternatives to your expensive landline phone and high cellular fees. Take the small amount of time to do the research and you can save yourself hundreds of dollars each year on your phone bill.

If you have an internet connection, it is possible to use your web connection to make voice calls. If you have already have a highspeed internet connection, why pay for an additional phone line? Your high speed internet connection has the capability of providing you with data and voice without needing an additional phone line. Of course, there are other phone alternatives beyond internet calling that can save you money. The only question is which phone alternative is right for you. Read on to discover a few ways you can save money on your phone bill.

Using your Computer to Talk over the Internet

There are several different ways that you can talk over the internet. If you have a headset with a microphone, you can plug right into your soundcard's earphone and microphone ports and use a simple service like Skype to have converstations over the internet with friends or family anywhere in the world. If you talk to other Skype members, the calls are free! If you need to call someone on a traditional phone, you can still speak to them over the internet for about the proce of a local call. This is a great service for international callers.

My first introduction to Skype was last summer when my church was hosting a missionary from Ukraine. He used my internet connection with his laptop, put on his headset and within minutes was talking to his wife and child who were back home in Ukraine. I asked him how he did that and he told me all about Skype. Since Skype was devloped and is based in Luxembourg, its populartiy radiated out from its European roots. Today, Skype has over 100 million downloads of it's software and has become a very popular phone alternative throughout the world. I have since tried out Skype and highly recommend it, especially for anyone who does a lot of traveling, since all you need is an internet connection and a laptop. It can save a lot on the long distance charges that wireless services charge.

Another similar service that allows you to talk over the internet using your computer is Web Phone I have not personally tried this service yet, so I can't comment on its ability to deliver as promised, but it looks like a program worth checking out if you are looking for ways to lower your telephone costs.

Phone Alternatives that Act more like traditional phones

Other internet services allow you to talk over the internet in a more traditional manner. Services like Vonage and Verizon VoiceWing utilize your internet connection, but then use an adapter so that you can plug in your regular phone to the service. Although you are talking over the internet, you won't even notice since the phone will work virtually identical to a conventional landline phone. Services like Vonage and Verizon VoiceWing are subscription based and usually run about $25 per month. While that may not seem like much savings over your traditional phone service, the upside is that these plans usually allow long distance calling at local rates and usually have very reasonable rates for international calls. If you are a light caller, Vonage has a great basic service that allows you up to 500 minutes each month of loacal and long distance for a single low rate (currently $14.99). This is a great value for voice over internet (VOIP) service! If you want unlimited calling at a low rate and don't mind paying an annual fee instead of monthly, SunRocket offers the best value of this group. At $199 per year for unlimited calling, that averages out to less than $17 a month.

Calling Cards are Great for Saving Money on Long Distance charges

The final phone service alternative that you might want to consider is the use of calling cards. While calling cards don't allow you to talk over the internet, they do offer fantastic long distance and international rates from your landline or wireless phone. Our favorite phone card provider is Pingo Phone Cards. PingoMobile routinely saves customers 90% or more on international calls from mobile phones, even compared to international cellular plans. And, PingoMobile works with any phone carrier! In short Pingo calling cards allow you to save money on long distance and international calls from your home, business, or mobile phone. Why pay your phone company or wireless service exorbitant rates when Pingo can do it for so much less? And Pingo virtual calling cards are less of a hassle to use than traditional phone calling cards because Pingo lets customers bypass entering a PIN from the 10 home, business, and mobile phones they use most. That's convenient. And that makes Pingo virtual calling cards another great long distance phone alternative.

Another calling card provider that also offers alternative internet telephone service is Net2Phone. Net2Phone is recognized as the first company to bridge the Internet with the public switched telephone network. Net2Phone currently routes millions of minutes daily over data networks, saving consumers and businesses up to 90% off traditional long distance rates.

We need your tips on saving money with alternatives to the traditional phone

What we offer here is just a sampling of the possible alternatives to high priced phone services you may be currently using. If you have a phone alternative, method or company that saves you money over traditional phone service, please let us know. We want to be helpful and would love to add your own tips to our page. Please email us at Online Business Reviews.

If you live in Canada, see our similar article on phone alternatives for Canadians.

Mark Sullivan is a freelance internet consultant living in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
If you would like to contact Mark, you can do so through Online Business Reviews.

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