Lingo Voip - more Free International Calls

Lingo Voip, an economy voip service provider, added four new countries in the Asia-Pacific region to its global calling plan. Lingo subscribers to the global plan now can call Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and South Korea free. This brings the total number of countries included in Lingo’s global calling plan to 21 for $21.95 per month.

“The addition of Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, and Singapore to Lingo’s global calling plan provides greater value and savings to Lingo’s broadband phone service customers,” said Ravi Bhatia, President of Lingo, Inc. “We appreciate all of our customers’ business and they can expect upcoming announcements that will further enhance our customers’ satisfaction.”

Read more about plans offered by Lingo Voip and current Lingo Deals.

Lingo Voip - more Free International Calls

Lingo Voip an economy voip service provider added four new countries in the Asia-Pacific region to its global calling plan. Lingo subscribers to the global plan now can call Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and South Korea free. This brings the total number of countries included in Lingo’s global calling plan to 21 for $21.95 per month.

“The addition of Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, and Singapore to Lingo’s global calling plan provides greater value and savings to Lingo’s broadband phone service customers,” said Ravi Bhatia, President of Lingo, Inc. “We appreciate all of our customers’ business and they can expect upcoming announcements that will further enhance our customers’ satisfaction.”

Read more about plans offered by Lingo Voip and current Lingo Deals.

SunRocket Voip $99 a Year

With the grand opening of SunRocket's new customer support center in Springfield, SunRocket is offering promotional deal especially for Springfield residents.

Local residents can purchase a full year of SunRocket’s VOIP service at $99. The service will include unlimited local and long distance calling as well as $3 credit towards international calls. The regular price for the same voip service offered by SunRocket is $199.

“SunRocket has been genuinely overwhelmed by the positive support and feedback from the local community,” Joyce Dorris, co-founder and chief marketing officer for the company, said in a news release.

Read Sunrocket Reviews and compare leading voip providers at voipdealsreview.org.

NetZero Voice

Netzero offers a very basic pc to phone voip service called NetZero Voice. The service lacks many of the features offered by its rivals, including videoconferencing and avatars, but in terms of call quality, NetZero Voice is one of the very best.

It also offers free PC-to-PC calls, voicemail, instant messaging, and an e-mail account with 1GB of storage.

So if you value the basic call quality of your voip service over the frills, NetZero Voice is an excellent choice.

NetZero Voice comes in three flavors.

The free version provides no-cost, pc-to-pc calling between NetZero Voice users. This is similar to Skype or Yahoo messenger with voice.

There are also two monthly plans. NetZero Voice 100 gives you 100 PC-to-Phone minutes in the United States, Canada, or Puerto Rico & costs $3.95 per month.

The pricier version, NetZero Voice Unlimited, at $14.95 per month gets you unlimited pc-to-phone calls to the US, Canada & PR.

Cnet's editorial review had this to say about NetZero voice. "Hands down, NetZero Voice offers some of the best call quality we've experienced recently in a VoIP service. In our anecdotal tests of PC-to-PC calls, connections for both parties sounded superb, with none of the typical VoIP problems, such as latency, chop, and distortion."

NetZero also offers internet services in different flavours called NetZero Platinum, NetZero 3G and Free NetZero. Reviews of these services are available at http://www.dsldealsreview.org.

8x8 Launches New Annual Service Plan

Residential and Business VoIP SErvice provider 8x8 today announced a new annual service plan to its suite of residential voice and video Internet phone services.

The annula plans will add a new payment plan like SunRocket or Viatalk and will provide a single payment, lower cost alternative to Packet8's monthly Freedom Unlimited service plan.

The new Freedom Annual plan, like its Packet8 Freedom Unlimited Plan; offers unlimited U.S. and Canada calling, Packet8's advanced calling features and a free (after rebate) Packet8-enabled 5.8 GHz Uniden Cordless Phone System for just $199.00 per year.

"Our new Freedom Annual plan is an excellent value for Internet phone service subscribers, offering users even greater savings on Packet8 unlimited calling services along with a free, high quality expandable cordless phone system that installs in minutes and gives subscribers access to Packet8 service throughout their homes," said Huw Rees, 8x8's vice president of sales and marketing.

Packet8 recently made news when it launched Packet8 Softtalk and was discussed in one of our posts. Packet8 softalk is a computer-based application which allows you to use your PC or Laptop to make voice and video calls over your high speed internet connection...

You can read about different voip plans offered by Packet8 and read independent reviews of leading Voip Providers at http://www.voipdealsreview.org.

Viatalk Website Down?

The Viatalk website seems to be down for quite sometime this morning. I did a search on Google and didn't find any post about a schedule downtime annoucement by Viatalk....

DSL Provider Earthlink launches Small Office DSL

EarthLink introduced Small Office DSL Plus today, a high speed Internet connection that does not need a local phone line. Instead, Small Office DSL Plus works by using a line set aside for data service.

Small Office DSL Plus gives small and medium-sized business owners a new option for obtaining
high speed access. Its benefits include:
- High speed service for phone systems that do not support
line-shared DSL.
- Broadband access that works in conjunction with third party voice
systems.
- Professional installation at no extra cost and free hardware after
rebate.
Linda Beck, the executive VP and GM for EarthLink Business Solutions said "Small Office DSL Plus is the latest offering from EarthLink Business
Solutions. This service takes away the added expense of a local phone line and is a perfect solution for small and medium-sized businesses that can't get DSL from their local phone company."

Small Office DSL Plus provides customers with a fast connection with download speeds up to 6.0Mbps and upload speeds up to 768Kbps. Service
plans start at $79.95 per month. The new service is available to both new DSL users and existing EarthLink Business DSL customers.

For more information on EarthLink Business Solution's Small Office DSL
Go to Earthlink Pricing: Free equipment and free activation (after rebate) and $79.95/month for the first 12 months.
Free Wireless Router.
One static IP address.
12 email accounts100MB of email storage per email address
20 hours of free dial-up per month.


Go to Earthlink

Vonage Chairman buys Stocks worth $1.3M

Jeffrey Citron, the chairman of Vonage has bought another $1.3 million worth of vonage stock. This comes after the company's May initial public offering. Jeffrey Citron, the founder, chairman, and chief strategist of Vonage. This make him a 33% stakeholder in the company.

Citron served as chairman and CEO from January 2001 till February 2006, when he resigned from the latter post.


Read vonage reviews.

Packet8 Softalk

Packet8 recently launched a service called Softalk which is a nice addition to its VOIP and VOIP Voice products.

What is Packet8 Softalk?
Packet8 softalk is a computer-based application which allows you to use your PC or Laptop to make voice and video calls over your high speed internet connection.

So with softalk a subscriber can call traditional land lines and cell phones plus they can call both packet8 voice and video subscribers. What makes it unique is, subscribers will be able to enjoy high quality video communications when traveling, without needing to carry a separate device. All they need is a laptop with the packet8 softalk s/w loaded.

Pricing:
Softalk is available in two plans.
Softalk Basic Allows you to make FREE calls to other Packet8 users. You can order your Softalk Basic online and receive a unique account number and password. Then, start making your voice and video calls online! ItÂ’s easy to use and FREE!

Softalk Premium This plan provides you with a telephone number. Its costs only $5.99 a month, plus a one time activation charge of $9.99. For this you get 500 inbound/outbound local and long distance minutes in the US and Canada. International calls will be per packet8's international rates. With softalk premium plan you also get a ton of features such as Voicemail, Voicemail to Email, Caller ID plus most importantly the E911 service.

Systems requirements:
You will need a PC or laptop running Windows operating systems. Then you will need a headset and microphone or a USB phone for voice calls. For video use, a standard digital camera or off-the-shelf webcam is required. You won't need a webacm to receive video images.

Softalk will add momentum to Packet8's existing Freedom Unlimited VideoPhone service.

You can download Packet8 Softalk from Packet8 website.
You may read Packet8 reviews and other Voip Reviews at www.voipdealreview.org

How to Shop for a VOIP Service Provider

The advantages of switching from a regular phone service to a VOIP service are manifold. The biggest advantage being cost savings both for residential consumers and small businesses. With broadband internet (dsl and cable) having garnered a critical mass among residential customers and small businesses, voip presents itself as an extremely viable option. The cost advantage comes from the voip technology which uses the ubiquitous cheap internet as the back bone for communication.

Several companies have established themselves as worthy players in this field challenging major telecom companies. Vonage by far is the biggest voip service provider in the US and Canada followed by Packet8 , Verizon, SunRocket , Lingo and Viatalk , not in that order though. The more the number of service providers, the more confusing it becomes to choose from when you go voip shopping. Alll voip providers aren't made equal. Each provider having some advantages over the other.

There are three major yardsticks you should consider before choosing a voip company.

1. Call Quality
2. Price
3. VOIP Features

1. Call Quality - Voip being a newer technology, it still hasn't matured enough. So call quality varies between different providers. Also sometimes the call drop rate is high among some providers. Read reviews, do some research about a provider's call quality before signing up.

2. Price - Most provides have multiple price plans. The basic plan, which is always the cheapest, most providers offer is a fixed number of long distance minutes every month. Its pretty much like cell phone calling plans, where you get a few hundred minutes of long distance calls every month. Rates like $9.99 per month for 200 minutes will beat any regular phone company rates. The higher priced plans come with unlimited long distance calling in the US & Canada for a higher fixed fee. Though prices for unlimited plans are higher that the basic plans, they are still cheaper than regular phone company price plans. There are also plans tailored for small businesses which may include video conferencing.

3. VOIP Features - The most important VOIP feature you must have is the ability to make 911 emergency calls. VOIP companies provide E911 service, which is similar to the 911 service provided by the cell phone companies. Some voip providers do not provide an E911 service. Make sure your provider has a E911 service if you are dumping you regular phone company altogether and switching to a voip provider. Other features include voice mail, call forwarding, call waiting, 3 way calling, online account management, current phone number transfer and many more. Do some research and make a list of features you want to have with your voip plan and ensure the voip provider you are choosing has those features.

Promotions and Offers - Though the VOIP plan pricing are always cheaper than your regular phone company rates, most voip companies come up with limited time promotions like free 1 year or six months of service when you sign up during the promotion period. SunRocket and Viatalk seem more aggressive in offering such deals to gain some market share. If you can sign up during these ongoing promotions, it will save you some additional money. There are many voip related web sites that keep an up to date listing of the current voip promotions. These web sites also provide visitors with user and expert reviews and will be a great tool for your research and helpful in choosing the right voip provider for your need.

You may read independent VOIP reviews and keep track promotions at http://www.voipdealsreview.org. You may also sign up to get voip promotions alerts by email.

8x8, Inc., Financial Results for 1st Quarter 2006

Packet8 VoIP provider 8x8, Inc., announced financial results for its first quarter 2007—the period ending June 30, 2006.

The numbers look good for the three-month period, with total revenues of $12.3 million, a 19 percent increase from the previous quarter and a 104 percent increase over the same period of its fiscal 2006 year.

Net losses for the quarter were $5.7 million—($0.09) per share—a reduction of 14 percent from the previous quarter.

As of June 30, 2006, 8x8 reported a subscriber base of 151,000 (up from 133,000 on March 31). The company’s balance sheet (including cash and investments) added up to $17.8 million.

“The increased marketing focus on the Packet8 Virtual Office small business VoIP phone service, which now represents 19 percent of total subscriber lines and 23 percent of quarterly new line sales, has been instrumental in overall gross margin and bottom line improvements,” 8x8’s Chairman and CEO, Bryan Martin, said in a statement.

Revenue from Packet8 has set new records for ten consecutive quarters, the result of 8x8’s focus on controlling operating costs and managing customer acquisitions, Martin commented.

“Going forward, 8x8's priorities remain fixed on further improving gross margins, enhancing the Packet8 service with outstanding quality and differentiated features, and providing excellent customer support and service,” Martin added.

8x8’s CEO also noted that, during Q1 2007 the company implemented a new Customer Relationship Management system designed to improve scalability and reduce operating and telecom expenses.

MSN in with Live Messenger, Waiting for Google GTalk

Microsoft dove into the IM VOIP business with the launch of its Windows Live Messenger, making the voip marketplace a little crowded and a lot more interesting. With Live Messenger you can make pc to phone calls and video calls which makes it a direct competitor to Skype.

But features wise Live Messenger is not exactly up to the mark with Skype, at least not yet.

First, for PC to Phone calls you will need to sign up with Verizon. So there are two sign ups for anybody starting with Live Messenger. You need to sign up with msn (if you don't have an account with them) and then you need to sign up with Verizon for pc to phone calls.

Second, unlike Skype, MSN Live Messenger doesn't give you a phone number for others to call you. So when Skype offers both a SkypeOut and SkypeIn service, MSN just offers Live-Messenger-Out so to speak.

Then Skype offers free calls to anywhere in the US till the end of 2006, which is helping it add to its user base. MSN offers nothing to entice those users back from Skype.

MSN plans to let its users talk to Yahoo users and this may help MSN & Yahoo a great deal. MSN + Yahoo will make a huge user base, at least for pc to pc calls. Skype has no plans to open up its messenger to other IM users.

But the money is in converting those pc to pc calls to pc to phone calls. And it remains to be seen which company does it the best.

As I mentioned in my previous post, with all the big players jumping into the IM Voip market, it may prove to be a boon for the consumers, if prices go down and quality improves. Stay tuned for the possibility of market consolidation. There are other players in IM Voip market like NetZero,Earthlink. The big companies, MSN, Yahoo and Goolge, may go shopping for smaller voip companies to give themselves some initial customer base to work with.

Now if you will excuse me, I got to go make a pc to phone call :-)

Vonage Downgraded by Research Analyst for ... What

Pali research analyst Richard Greenfield downgraded Vonage stock from `neutral' to 'sell' after he discovered Vonage is offering existing customers a discount rate of $19.99 a month to stop them from switching carriers. Vonage charges new customers $24.99 a month.

Is that really such a bad thing in a market economy where competetion thrives and companies go to great lengths to retain customers. Is that really a sign that the comapny is doing badly.

How many times have you called Sprint or American Express to cancel a service to be given a free offer like a free newer cell phone or a free year of service. Retaining an existing customer is much cheaper for any company than getting a new customer.

Vonage lowering the monthly rate for customers who want to switch, in my opinion - just this one single marketing strategy - is not such a bad reflection on the company. And eventually Vonage may gain from this IF they act on the reasons why customers want to switch. May be its the call quality or may be its their customer service.

But anyway I wouldn't sell my American Express stock just because they offered me a free one year on my Skymiles card, neither would I sell Vonage because they offered to lower my monthly rate. I would rather take the offers. BTW I don't own any of the above two stocks.

Free Skypeout in US & Canada

OK, here is the best VOIP offer so far. Skypeout now offers FREE unlimited pc to phone calls, both landlines & cell phones within US & Canada untill the end of 2006. Sweet deal... I am sure this the most aggressive step taken by any VOIP company to gain a foothold in the market. Yahoo recently launched it Yahoo messenger with Voice pc to phone voip service. NetZero and Net2Phone also offer similar services. But given Skype's free unlimited offer, they will have a tough time gaining any marketshare, at least till the end of the year, provided Skype maintains reasonable call quality. But then in any market place free offers generally come with a not so great qaulity. Skype's challenge will not be gaining market share, which it will, but rather holding on to it after 2006, when it will have decide how to make some money. After all it cannot serve all these non-paying customers for ever. It will be interesting to see how successfully Skype converts its free customer base to paying customers. In the mean time I don't think Yahoo is just going to sit tight and watch. I am sure they will come up with some competing offers, if not totally free, but very competitively priced and with added features that Skype doesn't have. And lets not forget Spokn which is in beta and now offers free domestic and international calls. Though nobody knows how long they will offer the free sevice or if it's just a part of their beta testing and when they will go will go live. Spokn's call quality is not up to the mark, at least not yet. And if it can improve its call qaulity and keep the free offer open it can be a serious contender too. And last but not the least, guess how interesting it will be if Google with all its might, wants to offer a pc to phone service through its Google Talk. Let's hope for that day when Skype, Yahoo and Google all fight it out for market share and we the consumers win.

Ditch the Phone Company, Buy more gas.

Hi,

Welcome to my the VOIP Gazette. I am a new VOIP user. When I was looking for a VOIP provider I was a complete VOIP novice. My only aim was to switch to VOIP and save some money on my long distance bill. My story begins when I set out to find a provider. The more time I spent on the internet looking for provider, the more I got confused. I had so many questions. Not all voip providers are made equal. My parents live in India, I make frequent India calls. That brought one more complication to my VOIP search. Some like Netzero Voice (has a free one month offer now) and Yahoo Messenger with Voice offer PC to Phone service for a fee and have good international rates. Some offer Phone to Phone service only. Some voip providers have excellent international rates but not so good call quality. Then there are providers like Spokn, still in beta, which offers free PC to Phone service, both domestic and international. Wow.... free international calls... am I dreaming. But anyway, with so many variables to consider, I went back to the internet, tried to read about voip as much as I could, narrowed down my choices. And today I am a proud voip user. Didn't somebody say, "when the student is ready, the teacher arrives". In this blog I plan to discuss my voip shopping experience and some of my findings. Stay tuned. Let's all ditch our regular phone company, switch to voip and save a few bucks, so that we can buy some more gas :-). Stay tuned.