Benefits of Internet Phone Service
What to look for in the best VoIP software
Using Internet phone service comes with many benefits. The following are the benefits offered by the best VoIP software companies:
- Cost: Using Internet phone service is cheaper than using traditional telephone service (whether landline or cell phone) – period. You pay one low monthly fee that’s typically 50-80% lower than that of traditional phone service.
The best VoIP software usually has a low monthly fee that covers unlimited incoming calls, and depending on the plan, unlimited outgoing local and long-distance calls too. Even international calling rates are much cheaper than those charged by traditional telephone companies – literally pennies on the dollar. And most Internet phone service providers, like their wireless competitors, give you free in-network calling.
This one low monthly fee also includes most of the calling features you’ve grown accustomed to on your phone (caller ID, call waiting, voice mail, etc.), rather than charging you piecemeal for each individual service.
And possibly the best VoIP software benefit - calls are tax-free!
- Convenience: You can use Internet phone service over your existing phone (or one just like it) or you can use it over your computer or even over your smartphone. You can even place VoIP Internet phone calls over somebody else’s broadband Internet connection—a hotel’s, an Internet café’s, a friend’s, or relative’s.
You can choose to keep your existing phone number or you can get a new phone number with your choice of area code.
You can use Internet phone service whether or not the person on the other end is using VoIP Internet phone, meaning that while they may be using up their expensive mobile minutes, you’re paying nothing at all.
- Features: The best VoIP software empowers you with tons more features than your land line or cell phone provider ever has. Beyond the usual suspects (call waiting, caller ID, voice mail, etc.) Internet phone service gives you access to online voice mail retrieval, call logs, caller ID blocking and anonymous call blocking, faxing, last number redial, local number portability, contact lists, and more. With features like these, you can finally have the total control over your telephoning experience that you always knew was possible but never knew how to acquire.
- Security: In a day and age when telephones are being put to more and more despicable uses – telemarketing, prank calling, real estate and stock scams, identity theft, etc. – most people will admit they no longer feel like their phone lines are secure. Anybody could be listening in on your calls. Anyone could be tracing your phone number to uncover personal information about you.
Not so with Internet phone service. Taking off from where general Internet security protocols have already evolved to, VoIP Internet phone services arm themselves (and you) with protections simply not available from standard telephone providers.
Internet phone service calls are secure. They are adware, spyware, and malware free. Many include antivirus protections and all are compatible with your existing antivirus protections. They don’t interfere with your existing firewalls, either. And that’s why so many VoIP Internet phone providers are able to offer more than merely a “Service Level Agreement” but a full-on “Quality of Service Guarantee”.
This is just scratching the surface of the best VoIP software benefits offered to everyone who uses an Internet phone service, from the home consumer to the small business user to the corporate enterprise.
View our list of the best VoIP providers
