Have you ever thought of any add-on charges when using a VoIP service, like Callvantage? No, you haven’t? Don’t worry, you were right…

Traditional phone service normally includes costs that apply to every single line you lease. Just like any other service, traditional telephony lines and services are taxed. Depending on where you are located, you could have one or more taxes in addition to all the other monthly charges. Taxes are based on the total cost of your line access and other services. For instance, for each line’s total service cost, you can add the following taxes to the bill:

• Federal tax (about 4 percent)
• State tax (varies by state but the average range is 5 to 7 percent)
• 911 emergency surcharge fund (flat rate of $1 per line)

Taxes obviously affect your bottom line. VoIP, however, does not come with any taxes or surcharges. VoIP is totally unregulated and operates over your existing computer network. Therefore, taxes do not apply to your monthly bill.

Ok, here’s where we get a bit technical… if you’re in the telecommunications industry this type of jargon will be easy for you.

If you’re not, have patience!

T1 is a term for a digital carrier facility used to transmit DS-1 formatted digital signals at 1.544 Megabits per second. A T1 is made up of 24 digital channels. Most small Internet providers have a T1 line as their connection to the Internet.

A full T1 should accommodate from one to over 200+ users and other services from an Internet service provider (ISP).

[+] Use Our Online Broadband Search Tool to Find the Best T1 Provider

T-3

T1 is a solution for business that have more than 200 people using the internet or businesses that utilize significant voice and data applications.

T3 is a group of 21 T1’s combined together to form a circuit. This T3 circuit is capable of 44.736Mbps both upstream and downstream. Fractional T3s are available to those who need high speed internet downloads and uploads faster than a T1 but who do not need a full T3 line.

[+] Use Our Online Broadband Search Tool to Find the Best T3 Provider

Fractional T1

Fractional T1 is best for commercial customers that need serious bandwidth, but not a full T1. T1 is a term for a digital carrier facility used to transmit DS-1 formatted digital signals at 1.544 Megabits per second.

A T1 is made up of 24 digital channels. Most small Internet providers have a T1 (or a fractional T1) line as their connection to the Internet.

A full T1 should accommodate from one to over 200+ users and other services from an Internet service provider (ISP).

For those whom a T1 is not necessary, fractional T1s are available at a lower cost. They simply use a fraction of the total channels available for a full high speed internet T1 line.

[+] Use Our Online Broadband Search Tool to Find the Best Fractional T1 Provider

Integrated T-1

An Integrated T1 is a great new and popular service that allows you to combine all of your voice and internet requirements on one T1. This solution is perfect for business with 5 + phone lines. These solutions start as low as $339 a month.

This is the solution that the traditional phone companies don’t want you to know about.

Whether your business needs several phone lines or rapid Internet access - or a combination of both - Broadband National can find the right package for you from our many providers.

DSL stands for Digital Subscriber Line. DSL is a technology that uses a standard copper two-wire pair (or line) to transmit high speed (high frequency) Internet connectivity to areas that will support the service.

How fast is DSL?

DSL can obtain speeds as high as 1.5Mbps and above, but the speed your location can receive depends on your address, line quality and the distance to your local phone company’s central office (CO).

Can I get Business DSL in my area?

Business DSL service can only be delivered within a radius from your phone company’s local central office. Typically, the highest speed service is restricted to a distance of 15,000 feet from the central office it is served from.

What are the different Business DSL “Options”?

Usually, the speeds and type of business DSL solutions available to you depend on two factors:

1) Your distance from the phone company’s Central Office (CO) and

2) the type of lines used between you and the Central Office (fiber/copper).

Each type of DSL has a different price, and different important attributes.

ADSL

Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line is best for home and small business users based on price and speed.

It is called asymmetric because more of its bandwidth is devoted in the downstream direction than in the upstream direction.

That basically means that you use it more for downloading stuff, rather than uploading.

The main reason for this is most Internet applications require high-speed Internet download bandwidth while user requests and responses (uploads) are small and require little bandwidth.

ADSL runs anywhere from 608Kbps to 1.5Mbps downstream and 128Kbps to 384Kbps upstream. ADSL is available up to 15,000 feet from a CO.

Typically the download speed is faster than the upload speed. While ADSL can generally be installed up to 15,000 feet, this general rule does not guarantee that we will be able to install the circuit or that the circuit will perform at a reasonable level.

Our ADSL service is also referred to as RADSL (Rate-Adaptive ADSL).

The term “rate-adaptive” means the technology adapts to your individual line conditions, e.g., your specific distance from the CO and the quality of the copper line that serves your DSL.

Speeds expressed with ADSL packages are the maximum speeds your line may achieve. Although we will do everything within our power to provide you with the best possible service, due to the nature of the technology, ADSL services do not come with a service level guarantee. The actual speed is determined by both distance & copper quality, and installations resulting in “best business effort” speed (the maximum achievable speed based on technical conditions prior to install) will be considered successful. As many businesses require a guaranteed service, ADSL is not available for business locations. We recommend SDSL service for all eligible businesses.

[-] back to business broadband for VoIP

SDSL

Symmetric Digital Subscriber Line is best for heavy home users such as gamers, and for commercial customers. SDSL uses a single twisted-pair line, carrying 1.544Mbps in each direction.

It is called “symmetric” because the data is the same in both directions, downstream and upstream.

ISPs provide different service plans based on the data rate; they range from 192Kbps dedicated to 1.544Mbps dedicated.

NOTE: SDSL will support small and medium sized businesses.

[-] back to business broadband for VoIP

IDSL

IDSL is based on ISDN, an older technology that was designed to work well with existing ISDN transmission methods.

SDSL, and ADSL travel over regular copper lines and cannot have any electronics on them (such as, for example, amplifiers or repeaters - commonly used to “boost” the voice signal on conventional telephone lines).

Some business ADSL and SDSL orders cannot be fulfilled because of electronics or distance issues that are uncovered during the ordering process. In that case, IDSL may be the best solution.

In other words, IDSL will work great for your small business or home based business VoIP solutions if you are very far away from a telephone CO (Central Office).

[-] back to business broadband for VoIP

To set-up your VoIP service, if you’re using a IP phone adapter or even a PBX, you’ll need to determine the exact type of broadband service.

Since VoIP is bandwidth dependent (read the advantages and disadvantages of Voip here), even if you already have an existing broadband for your data (surfing the net, emails, file transfer, intranet etc) it is recommended that you get dedicated for your VoIP phone service.

Why? Because you don’t want voice and data to be running on the same line, sharing the resources. If there is congestion, people would tolerate a slow-loading website or email program, but they will not tolerate waiting even 10 seconds to get a reply from the person they’re talking to.

Would you? That’s why adequate broadband for Voip is VERY important. Here are the different types of broad band services:

DSL

Digital Subscriber Line, which also has several variations such as ADSL, SDSL and IDSL. DSL is great if your company has less than 6 phone lines.

DSL is a technology that uses a standard copper two-wire pair (or line) to transmit high speed (high frequency) Internet connectivity to areas that will support the service.

[+] Click Here for More Info On Using DSL Broadband for VoIP

[+] Use Our Online Broadband Search Tool to Find the Best DSL Provider

Satellite

Satellite Internet service is ideal for those who cannot be reached by other Internet connection types.

Satellite Internet has come a long way since its conception and now is more reliable than ever. It relies on gestational satellites that orbit above the equator at the same speed as the earth’s rotation and, thus, appear to be stationary to the ground.

The average Satellite download speed is 400Kbps although the Satellite can run up to 1.1Mbps. This will be more than sufficient for most home based or small business Internet users.

As long as you have a clear view of the southern skies, you can get Satellite Internet service.

[+] Use Our Online Broadband Search Tool to Find the Best Satellite Provider

T1 & T3

T1 is a solution for business that have more than 20 using the internet or businesses that utilize significant voice and data applications.

Although this may not be applicable to a small business or home business, you amy want to explore the possibilities.

[+] Click Here for More Info On Using T1 and T3 Broadband for VoIP

[+] Use Our Online Broadband Search Tool to Find the Best T1 Provider

Cable Internet

Cable is best for home based and small business users based on price and speed. Cable lines run over the cable providers existing cable through a cable modem.

A cable modem can run at high speeds, with a maximum of 2 Mbps download, typically running between 500 Kbps and 1 Mbps, and with uploads between 128 Kbps and 500 Kbps.

Please use our broad band search tool to find a suitable cable broadband provider.

VoIP for the small office / Home office (SOHO) offers plans starting at $44.95 a month for unlimited local and long distance calling to anyone in the U.S. or Canada, and a SOHO Regional Plan for  34.95  per month which includes 1500 monthly minutes to the USA and Canada.

Additional usage is just 3.9 cents per min. Every Broadvox Direct  business plan comes with a free dedicated fax line and yellow page listing.

Virtual phone numbers are available for $4.95 per month.  With a virtual phone number you can portray a local presence by having a local phone number in another market.

Most of the VoIP services, like ATT Voip, is not just about making and receiving telephone calls; it’s about a whole new way of communicating. Sure, it includes telephone calls, but there is so much more to the VoIP telephony picture. VoIP integrates most if not all other forms of communication. You can even run videoconferencing to your desktop.
With ATT VoIP, your company enjoys increased productivity and customer satisfaction.

These improvements are typically realized through the flexibility offered by enhanced calling features. A few calling features, such as voice mail and call transfer, have been around in the POTS world for quite some time. On the other hand, integrating data, voice, and video applications to run over a single network and work with wireless phones are more recent innovations made possible by IP telephony.

Following are some enhanced calling features made possible by IP telephony:

• Vemail: Before IP telephony and VoIP, you accessed voice mail through a telephone and accessed e-mail through a computer. With VoIP, you can read your voice mail on your computer screen and listen to your e-mail through an IP-enabled telephone. The new term for this converged feature is vemail (pronounced “v-e-mail”).
• Web surfing: Because ATT VoIP operates with the same set of IP rules and protocols that support Web-based applications, it is possible to access the Web with an IP-enabled telephone. If you have an IP telephone with a large enough screen, it can display Web pages or a list of your favorite Web links. For instance, you could use your phone to view your stock exchange trading status or the current weather forecast.

Found a bunch of overly-excited people marveling at the Nabaztag WiFi rabbit on YouTube:

See also: www.nabaztag.com

When using an VoIP service like Asterisk VoIP, you probably want to use some extra calling features. In this article you can find some info about them.

Calling features include items such as voice mail, call forwarding, call transfer, return call, and three-way calling. Traditional telephony requires you to pay a monthly charge for call features. These add-on charges may not apply equally to all the lines you lease because the features are optional.

Some call features are so popular, many people think they are a part of the telephone service and are expected to come with the access line. Voice mail, for instance, is considered an essential with any telephone, but you still have to pay the carrier $7 to $9 per month per line. If you use the popular call return feature, you can pay around $1.00 to $1.50 for each use.

You can reduce the total cost of call features by setting up a bundled plan with the carrier. However, you do not have to add any call features to any line; they are truly options like a moon roof or climate control in an automobile.

VoIP comes with the usual call features that you have to either bundle with your traditional lines or pay à la carte per line as you use these features. But with VoIP, you don’t need to worry about the cost of call features; they are all included at no extra cost.

Most companies use an internal telephone system, which can usually provide most if not all call features. However, with POTS and Centrex line models, call feature costs are highly relevant to the company’s monthly telephony bill. If your company has hundreds or thousands of lines, the overall cost for all features for all lines can be astronomical.

See also: Asterisk VoIP Hosted PBX

If you have or lead a company and would like to use VoIP in order to be competitive, you may research some info on the internet about VoIP and find a few strange phrases, for example, PBX or asterisk VoIP hosted PBX. In this short article I would like to help you to learn a bit about PBX.

First of all, what is PBX? Private branch exchange. Before VoIP, PBX was the mainframe of corporate telephony. KTS, what means key telephone system, is a small version of PBX.

PBXs deliver so much value, such as:

• PBX can use dedicated high-bandwidth lines out to the carrier or to other locations on the company’s network.
• Interfaces can be used on PBX to provide full-motion videoconferencing.
• PBX has extensive call-management capabilities and the capacity for setting up and controlling multiple call centers.
• PBX can usually be upgraded to operate with VoIP. As a result, you can save money because you do not have to get rid of your PBX to go to VoIP.

As with KTS, companies using PBX can reduce the total number of POTS lines required by a factor of one line for every six to eight employees. But unlike KTS, PBX has the capacity for unlimited expansion. The largest workable KTS is limited to about sixty POTS lines; with PBX, you can have thousands of lines.
The PBX system’s circuitry integrates multiple users over fewer lines at a single location and can also connect to all other locations.

If your company has multiple locations, with each site having its own PBX, you can connect them all using a separate network, but the cost of maintaining a separate network is huge. If you have a great deal of recurring charges, the multilocation design for connecting all your PBXs can save your company big time. The recurring costs have to be leveraged against the costs of an entirely separate network. (VoIP runs over your computer network and does not require a separate PBX network.)

The PBX model provides great savings when compared to the other models, but it doesn’t give you anything close to the savings attainable through VoIP. VoIP all but eliminates services charges for all on-net calls. VoIP reduces carrier services charges significantly for calls that travel off-net. For many large multilocation companies, these charges alone amount to millions of dollars per month.

Believe it or not, the roots of VoIP (for example, the roots of the AOL VoIP) go all the way back to the 1870s. In 1879, Alexander Graham Bell forgot his Internet password and, knowing that his assistant had stashed it away, uttered the famous words “Watson! Are you there?”

He never got on the Internet, but he did prove that the human voice could be carried electronically over a pair of wires. He also demonstrated that the endpoints for these wires had to be connected to the right equipment — hardware that he invented. Mr. Bell’s inventions ushered in an age of communication that made the world much smaller than it had ever been before.

When Mr. Bell invented the telephone and thereby gave birth to the telephone network, VoIP was not even a consideration. (Truth be told, the idea of a network wasn’t yet a consideration either.) Other inventions would be required before VoIP could become a reality.

The first telephone equipment was analog. Historians and technicians alike have labeled the first phone service POTS, or plain old telephone service. VoIP won’t function very well over a POTS system; it requires a digital network.

Digital networking for telephones was invented in the 1920s, but the first digital networks would not leave the laboratory until much later, in 1964. Today, most phone companies in the United States have updated their equipment to include digital service.

Over time, the POTS network gave way to the PSTN, or public switched telephone network. (The terms PSTN, public switched telephone network, public telephone network, and phone network are used synonymously.)

Although it occurred in what seems like the ancient past, Alexander Graham Bell’s work is important in understanding VoIP. The POTS network that began with his invention has grown into the largest circuit-switched network in the world. It also has become an expensive network, with individuals and companies spending hundreds of billions of dollars each year for communication services.

VoIP, which was developed in 1995 and started to use by AOL a few years later, is gradually replacing the PSTN. Some view the PSTN as the antithesis of VoIP, but it still remains the standard of quality by which VoIP is measured. For instance, people often ask whether VoIP provides voice quality as good as what is delivered through the PSTN. Most of the factors used to evaluate the quality of VoIP are based in some way on the PSTN, so understanding a bit about the older networks is important.