The other day, a neighbor came by to tell me about the great deal he got on bundled internet and phone service through the broadband internet company. He had just ditched his old AOL dial up service and had Qwest broadband installed, providing him with a high speed DSL internet connection for around $27 per month. This is a super deal indeed! He then proceeded to brag about the phone service package he bought from Qwest for $45 a month, which gives him unlimited local and long distance calling within the United States, as well as three free calling features for his phone. He was so excited about this deal and the money he would save that I didn't have the heart to tell him he could have done much better if he had gone with a true VoIP provider instead of "bundled" service with his broadband company. This fellow obviously didn't know about the internet phone service choices that are now available to anyone with a high speed internet connection. Sure, he's saving money - but if he had known there were better, cheaper options that offer the same high quality service at a fraction of the cost, he would have saved even more precious money and received every available calling feature for free! This article is dedicated to those of you who are considering "bundled" digital phone service through your local phone company, cable company or broadband service provider. Before you go jumping into a package deal to save money on telephone service, learn a little bit about digital phone service first - you just might change your mind. "Digital Phone Service" is a Fancy Marketing term Meaning "Expensive VoIP" In an effort to make even more money, cable companies and broadband internet service providers are cashing in on the highly profitable internet phone service market by offering what they call "digital phone service". Digital phone service is a fancy marketing term that is used by resellers to describe VoIP internet phone service that is purchased directly from true VoIP providers and resold to consumers at over 100% markup. Digital phone service is the same internet phone service that you can buy directly from the source and save a ton of money. Cable companies and broadband internet providers enter an agreement with VoIP providers to re-brand and resell their unlimited local and long distance phone service. VoIP is so low-priced already that the resellers pay about the same price per phone number as a consumer would pay, leaving very little profit margin if they simply sold the service at regular "market" prices. Rather than accept a small profit of only a few dollars per month per subscriber, these resellers use clever marketing tactics that involve re-labeling VoIP to "digital phone service", and bundling it with internet service to give you a special "discount price". Digital Phone Service vs. VoIP - The Price Difference If you purchased the same unlimited VoIP internet phone service on your own, you would pay between $17 to $25 per month, depending on the provider. "Digital phone service" purchased from your cable company or internet provider costs between $40 to $50 per month. Since most people switch telephone service providers to save money, it makes much better financial sense to use VoIP internet phone service instead of the bundled phone service offered by local cable, internet, and phone providers. To ensure that you get the best quality VoIP service, be sure to purchase your internet phone service from a highly rated, well known VoIP provider. Some recommended providers to consider are Vonage, Sunrocket, Packet8, Opex and fonVantage. |
