The magicJack Plus makes calls through a VoIP network, also known as Voice-Over-Internet-Protocol.. This is the same technology other companies have used previously , such as NetTALK, Vonage, and the previous model of the magicJack, released in 2007. These services use your existing broadband internet connection to make and receive calls. One downside to this, however, is that you will not be able to make or receive calls during a power or internet outage. With a reliable internet connection, this is not be a significant issue.

The magicJack Plus phone service gives users call waiting, call forwarding, caller ID, three-way calling, and voicemail, all for no additional charge. With their low yearly payment, users can make and receive unlimited local and long distance calls anywhere in the United States and Canada. Users can also make international calls for a low per minute rate, which varies from country to country.

The device is simple to set up. Consumers can expect to spend less than five minutes from opening the device, to being able to make calls. The magicJack Plus device is plugged into a high-speed modem or router, and into its power supply. Next, a standard telephone is plugged into the magicJack Plus, and users can begin making calls immediately, using their own phone number.

The device requires an initial purchase of $69.95, which includes the magicJack+ device and all of its hardware, including an AC adapter power supply, an Ethernet cable, and a cable for USB. This price also includes the first year of service, so consumers do not even have to worry about paying a phone bill for at least a year after the initial purchase. The initial purchase also includes a 30 Day Free Trial, so consumers have a month to decide whether or not they are satisfied with the magicJack Plus. This trial period eliminates the weariness of those who are switching to phone service provided through a VoIP network for the first time. If they are unsatisfied, the device can be easily returned.

Signing up for ITP, you are eligible for two months free, pay monthly (leaving you paying $199 a yr), and a free calling card. ITP has several pricing plans available,a few of those would be: Unlimited for $19.99 monthly, 500 minutes for $9.99 monthly, or International for $24.99 monthly. There are still many more to suit your needs, if none of those work for you.

Signing up for Phone Power, you are eligible for 60 minutes International talk time free,second phone line free, and a rate of $199.95 for two years. At Phone Power, their is also several plans available, a few of those allow you to pay a rate of 19.95 monthly for unlimited service, or you can get the two years, and pay $199.95. That leaves you paying for the first year, and getting the second year free, as a promotion that is going on for a short period of time.

When choosing between two companies that have the same rating, you may want to consider a variety of things. For example, ITP’s saving does not have to be prepay-ed, you get month one, and twelve for free, and pay $19.99 a month, for the months in between. You also have the advantage to enjoy their services and then pay, if you are not satisfied, cancel at anytime, with no fee! No need in worrying if the company you have prepaid,is going to go out of business, and leave you without telephone, and the money you had paid.

There is also a good side to prepaying, if you feel you trust that the company will in business for the time you will want VoIP. You will not have to worry about a bill throughout the month, as you have already paid, and got a one time low rate, instead of a higher monthly payment. You may also want to look into the ways of contacting the service provider.

For example, Phone Power has not only ways to contact them through telephone, and email, but you can contact them through a online based one on one chat, where you can discuss billing & sales, or tech support. As to ITP allows email, or telephone contact. After considering your options carefully, you have two highly rated companies who both likely deserve your business, the hard part will be picking which company.

In the US today, many telephone and internet providers are competing with each other in getting as many homes equipped with VoIP as possible. Most of these companies offer bundle packages where internet connection and VoIP telephone connection are given for a very small fee. The top two competing companies in the US today are Vonage and AT&T. Let’s talk about the differences and similarities of what these two companies are offering in this VoIP review.

*Monthly Subscription*
Vonage offers a monthly subscription fee of $14.99 for the first 6months of signing up. Then the rate will increase to the regular fee of $25.99 a month. AT&T U-verse Voice offers their service for a monthly fee of $35. This is higher than Vonage but because of the greater service. AT&T U-verse Voice also caters mostly to small business and enterprise VoIP client.

*Minutes of Free Local and International Calls*
Vonage offers unlimited local and long distance calls to over 60 countries. AT&T U-verse Voice offers the same unlimited local and long distance call rates, but limited only to US, Canada and Puerto Rico. If the $35 per month subscription is too much for you, AT&T U-verse Voice also offers a lower rate of $25 for 250minutes long distance call to the countries mentioned above.

*Clarity of lines*
Both Vonage and AT&T U-verse Voice offers clear and quality lines for your local and international calls.

*Added Service*
Added service like call waiting, voice mails and call forwarding are included on subscriptions to either of the two companies.

*Bundle Rates*
Vonage and AT&T U-verse Voice both offer bundle rates, wherein special telephone features can be added to your VoIP line for a very minimal fee. For the complete bundle rates check out Vonage’s site and AT&T U-verse Voice.

*Value for Money*
If you have friends or relatives living in Asia or Europe, it is best to get Vonage VoIP subscription as they offer free calls to these areas. But if most of your calls are within North America and is thinking of putting up a small business, AT&T U-verse Voice is the best for you.

In contrast to Vonage, the MagicJack service which is a relative newcomer to the VoIP industry has proven to be innovative in price and service packaging. With a low cost of $39.95 for both the MagicJack unit and a year of service, and a $19.95 yearly bill, the MagicJack service already beats Vonage hands-down in regard to service price. Adding to MagicJack’s value is the fact that service includes free long distance calling to the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands. On top of long distance services provided by MagicJack, the MagicJack service also includes free directory assistance, phone number assignment, call waiting, voicemail, and caller ID.

While MagicJack and Vonage have only long-term service rates, Skype provides service on both a monthly and “Pay-As-You-Go” basis. With rates from 2.1 cents per minute for Pay-As-You-Go, Skype’s short-term benefits are quite apparent. More so, Skype presents itself as quite the competitor in regard to their monthly service plans by providing services starting from $2.95 a month for domestic calling. Along with their domestic (US & Canada) plan, Skype also provides country-selective services at the cost of $5.95 a month.

Skype’s ‘Unlimited Country’ plan allows the user to select a country in which they can make unlimited land-line calls to for the duration of their month subscription. Skype’s third monthly option is the ‘Unlimited World’ plan, at the price of $12.95 a month, Skype provides landline calls to over fourty countries worldwide. Along with the capability of being able to make telephone calls, Skype also provides the capability to make free PC-to-PC calls which also include video services.

Overall, in the competition between VoIP services, Skype provides the most cost-efficient plan without many frills. MagicJack meanwhile provides the most cost-efficient price which also includes a wide range of special services. Vonage, while being a long-time leader in VoIP services has fallen behind with their use of excessive prices, for services which are now common-place and can be delivered at lower rates by their competitors.

VoIP has been beneficial in terms of reducing cost related to communication as well as infrastructure. The phone calls are routed through the existing data networks, thus avoiding a need for extra or separate data network. Various other facilities like conference calls, call forwarding, automatic redial and even caller ID are made available free of cost as compared to the conventional telecommunication system.

Since VoIP are charged per megabyte, the billing costs are very low as compared to the regular telephone bills. Basically there are many pros and cons of using VoIP service. If you perform a VoIP review you will find a lot of advantages. As mentioned earlier, the reduction in cost is the biggest advantage of VoIP. Even international calls are charged very less as compared to the conventional telecommunication system. This service is indeed really portable, as one can use it anywhere by simply logging into the unique VoIP account. Even the phone -to- phone VoIP service is portable. This makes VoIP service really unique and advantageous.

But it also has cons or disadvantages. Two biggest hurdles of VoIP service are lack in provision of a round the clock service and emergency calling. Traditional phone services continue to provide unobstructed service, even when there is no power supply. But with internet phones, one needs to have power supply. If there is a black out, it may be impossible to avail this service, provided one has some battery backup or a power generator hooked up to your VoIP adapter. VoIP service is not really useful in case of emergencies, like calling 911. Locations can be easily traced in conventional phone calls, but it is just not possible to locate areas in internet phones. The data sent via email often arrives in a scrambled manner in VoIP service. Hence it loses in terms of quality. Two more hurdles that come in the way of VoIP service are distance as well as speed.

PROS OF VOIP:
1. The very first and most important advantage of VOIP is that it costs much less in comparison to traditional phone calls as it has a flat rate charge for calling long distances whereas in traditional way, your call cost is always proportional to the distance between the caller and the receiver.
2. With VOIP, you can communicate with multiple people at anytime you want but with traditional way of telecommunication, you are limited to one call one person.
3. As VOIP incorporates both data and voice communication. So, instead of just being able to talk with the other person, you can exchange more ideas with them like sending graphics, videos etc, which again is a limitation with the traditional system of telecommunications.
4. As VoIP is internet-enabled service, so even if you change location, you do not need to change the existing number, which you have to, in case you are using the traditional system.
5. Wherever internet access is available, VOIP services can be utilized but same stand restricted in case of traditional system.

CONS OF VOIP:
1. As VOIP is internet-enabled service, every time the internet connection cuts down, the VOIP system becomes inaccessible. So, if that is the only way of your telecommunication, in that case, it would prove dangerous in case of emergency.
2. VOIP services depends mainly on the quality of internet connection in your area as well as the power availability. So, in case the quality of internet is poor, it will led to poor VoIP conversation.
3. Since the VOIP is portable, so calls cannot be traced properly as to from where they are made.
4. Eavesdropping is another limitation of VOIP as it does not comes with conversational privacy and your calls can be overheard by somebody else.
5. Though caller ID is a built-in feature of VOIP package, but when we make calls using our VOIP connection, our number is not screened on their caller ID and is displayed as “Unknown.” So, the receiver might not be willing to attend our call.

Having said both the pros and cons of this great technology, none of us can undermine its importance in the current scenario where internet has certainly become a part and parcel of our everyday life. Check out several companies and do a thorough VoIP review before signing up. So, let us hope that soon all its disadvantages can be completely removed or at least minimized to an extent that majority of the world population can use this fascinating technological innovation.

The first point relates to sound quality. When I first got the service I thought the sound quality was comparable to “ma bell”, except when I was using the internet intensely (using file-sharing while watching YouTube) in which case the other party reported I sounded garbled. This may have actually been an issue with my router, though, because I changed routers ten months ago and haven’t had issues in about a year. What some people may not notice, though, is when you call someone else with Vonage. I honestly believe the quality to be crystal clear in such cases. There’s less distortion than on phone lines. When you hear a TV or talking in the background, the voices remain distinct. Another case I have for better sound quality is when calling my friends abroad. They no longer sound a mile away due to signal loss. I almost never get a bad connection now and I would say that in those rare occasions I would have to blamed it on the Egyptian telecommunications, because what few times I do get static it’s usually during the afternoon in Cairo. If you have pen-pals abroad, this service is a must-have. The other issue or lack there of would be regarding usage charges.

Though I only just started getting free calling globally (and still at the same low price which I’ve paid without a rate hike for twenty-six months), I’ve experienced significant international savings throughout my history with Vonage. My former phone provider, MCI, could charge me as much as $80 a month for the limited calling I placed to my old college friends in Egypt and Ireland. As soon as I got my first Vonage bill, I noticed the huge difference, at all times paying less than a dollar a minute for international calling, even to rural places that most providers charge an arm and leg to call. Now, I can call for hours without a worry or care. I haven’t had to worry about long distance charges since even before Vonage, but, with MCI, I was paying nearly $75 for unlimited long distance.

I would definitely recommend anyone looking into VoIP to give Vonage a try.

Within a year customer services had moved to Canada and the price went up but the Canadian customer service was also very strong. I had occasion to call them to hard reset my modem a couple of times due to cable or power outages which would throw the lingo box out and burnt out one of the ports as well. They were patient knowledgeable; taught me things I could do on my own to avoid customer service and succinct.

The actual VoIP phone services was good the phone line was clear and worked as if it was a real phone line with the exception of when the cable was acting up. About a year after this the price went up dramatically, customer service was moved offshore to India and Lingo became part of the problem instead of the wonderful solution it had been for two years prior.

The customer service agents were no longer free thinking technically apt English speakers but Indian script readers who were confused and bewildered if you tried to take them off topic or expressed any urgency or disinterest in going through the troubleshooting routine they were trained to do because you had already done it.

The modem completely burnt out and I had to fight with them to get another one sent out; it took an hour and fifteen minutes. The quality of the phone line seemed to waver a lot after the offshore move as well. I would dial a number and get a recording or an instant busy signal as if the number was out of order which was not the case as I would call the number on my cell phone and it work.

I started only using the line for incoming calls and buzzer phone calls. After many attempts at dealing with the customer service department and the line consistently deteriorating while prices were being raised again I gave up and closed my account with them and solely used my cell phone from then on.

As far as quality goes, the sound is about as good as a cell phone call, and it is not as clear as a landline. I have found that a corded phone works better than a cordless one. Many of the bells and whistles that regular phone companies charge for are included in the price.

You get voicemail, call forwarding, call waiting, and other features included in the bundle. In addition, you can chose to have voicemail messages transcribed and e-mailed to you for an additional price. In addition, you have the option of adding a “soft phone” to your account. This is a phone number assigned to a computer. This is especially useful for people who travel abroad often, as you can make phone calls to the United States at no extra charge, as long as you have an internet connection.

Billing is also very convenient. You must provide Vonage with your credit card number, and the company then charges it automatically every month. You can log into their website to see your bill and usage. One drawback is that you do not receive paper statements.

Another drawback is that your actual bill will be about ten dollars higher than the nominal charge, because of taxes, fees, and surcharges. Emergency calls (911) are different from a regular landline. Since Vonage works anywhere you have internet, your phone number is not attached to a physical location, so the 911 dispatcher has no way of knowing where you are located. If you want the benefit of the emergency dispatcher knowing your location, you must register your address through the Vonage website. You must do this every time you move.

Though I believe Voice over IP technology has a long way to go in order to become as clear and reliable as landlines, the price is a huge incentive to switch. I would not go back to a regular landline after using Vonage for a few years.

We have been very satisfied with this service and would recommend to anyone thinking about purchasing. The call clarity is just as good as the company advertised and the features that come with it are great as well. We get free long distance to anywhere in the continental U.S., free caller id, and free voicemail included with our service.

The long distance is a great feature for when we need to call family and friends and want the reliability missing from our cell phone service. We make frequent calls, and as I stated before, the clarity and reliability is great. We also love the caller id feature. Not only is the caller id like traditional phone service, but we have it set up to show up on our television screen so we do not have to get up to see who is calling while watching our favorite TV shows. This feature can also be easily turned off if this is not an option you think you would like.

The voicemail on Comcast that we receive is also a great feature. We don’t have to worry about the aggravation of a traditional answering machine to receive our calls that we do not want to take or calls that we receive when we are not at home. We only have to set it up once, and it continues to capture any messages, and it is very easy to use. This technology is truly amazing and a very great idea that telecommunication companies have developed and started offering.

Now that we have experienced the reliability and convenience of voice over IP, we would never go back to traditional assigned cable pair phone service. I would definitely recommend this service to anyone thinking about changing their existing service, or looking to choosing a service for the first time. We have been very pleased with our service, and we are sure that other people will be pleased as well.