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All about Cheap Phone Service.

Educate yourself and save money!

Change is in the air for phone service. Consumers no longer have to be tied to their old telco and cell phone plans. There are more and more choices coming everyday. So many in fact that unless you really sit down to study the options it is hard to figure out what the best choice is.

This guide aims to provide you with a shortcut to a reasonable and cheap phone service solution. The information presented here is objective in nature. Take a look at side by side price comparisons of different technologies and plans to find out what will best suit your needs.

Locked into a horrible cell phone plan? Getting ripped off with a pre-paid mobile? Wondering about VoIP? And what is Skype anyway?

This book in still a work in progress. Check back soon for more.

Choose a section below to get started.

WiFi phones are similar to cell phones except they connect to wireless computer networks instead of cell networks. Simple as that. However to be useful as phones they must connect to a VoIP service through the wireless network connection.

A connection to a VoIP service such as Vonage, Skype, SIPgate etc is done with software installed on the phone. The end user may be unaware of the software or it may need to be installed by the user depending on the phones and service to be used.

WiFi phones have a few unique advantages over normal mobile phones.

Pros

• Cheap Service. VoIP services generally have very low airtime costs generally and especially internationally. Imagine calling your overseas friends from a cafe for .02 US$/min.
• WiFi Coverage. If you are near a WiFi hotspot / network you have phone service. In urban areas they are all over. If you have a laptop computer you can potentially bring your phone network with you.

Cons

• WiFi Coverage. Even urban areas have plenty of places where there is no WiFi. Without WiFi your fancy WiFi phone is useless.
• Emerging Technology. There are not many WiFi phones available yet. Some smartphone / PDAs can be made to work but there is often an element of DIY.

Existing WiFi Phones

• UTStarcom F1000 This is basically the Vonage WiFi phone. Since Vonage pushes this phone for its users, the F1000 is probably the most popular phone in this category. Since it doesn't have a web browser it cannot access wireless networks that require you to visit a web page before use. It reportedly has a terrible interface. But it is a WiFi phone that you can get right now, today. About $80 through Vonage. $120 elsewhere.
• Smartphones and PDAs Some PDAs and some of the newer mobile phones have WiFi capabilities. Devices like the Treo 650 fit this description as well as the soon to be released Nokia phones (N91 and maybe others). Excepting the newest (and as of yet not available) devices, support is something far less than official with these devices so you will have to check Google or your local geek to see what works and doesn't work. Some of the HP iPaq's work (2210, 4700 and some others), Eten m600 / Torq P120, Dell Axim x30 / x50 with Skype and possibly other SIP client software.
• ZyXEL's P2000W The original consumer WiFi phone. Quite dated at this point.
• Cisco IP Phones Cisco has a series of IP phones. Some seem to have wireless connectivity but I don't know much about these.

Netgear has a Skype specific phone coming soon(?) that sounds very interesting.

In the near'ish future there should be a lot of new hybrid mobile phones that use cell networks as well as WiFi. Nokia will have their N91 out soon. It remains to be seen what will happen with this sort of technology since current cell companies are doing EVERYTHING possible to stop it. They want to lock you in and give you NO chance of getting away from their horrible contracts. I am sure VoIP WiFi phones scare them.

Cheap Home Phone Service

Attention deficit reader's summary: VoIP is what it claims to be. Good VoIP provider + good Internet connection = happy.

Non attention deficit readers, keep reading.

The major development in home phone service has been VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol). You hear about it all over now and it seems too good to be true. Free or cheap unlimited calling for local / domestic calls and dirt cheap international calling. How is it possible?

First off, a short explanation of VoIP. Voice over Internet Protocol is a way of making a voice call through the Internet rather than only the traditional telco circuits. You initiate a call with a VoIP device (which might simply be a standard phone connected to a VoIP router). Your call connects to your VoIP service provider (Vonage, Sunrocket, SkypeOut etc) through your Internet connection. Finally your VoIP provider routes your call onto the standard telco phone system and to the number you called.

If everything is working correctly the person you called will have no idea that you didn't call them with a normal phone. It works the same the other way around. You get a normal phone number (you can generally transfer your old number to a VoIP service too) that other people can dial to reach you through your VoIP service as well.

It is an ideal solution if you already have a broadband Internet connection... a reliable broadband Internet connection... a reliable broadband Internet connection with a good upload rate...

Even though VoIP is not a new idea or service, it is still a developing technology. There are technical as well as practical complications that make VoIP not the best choice for everyone. It can save you a lot of money though, so it is worth taking a look at.

What you need to make VoIP work

• Broadband Internet. VoIP will only work if your Internet connection is working. If it goes down so does your phone. Or if the connection quality is bad you will have poor sound quality phone connections with random disconnections.
• VoIP Provider. A company that provides your VoIP service to you. Plenty to choose from. See the sections below for some guidance.
• VoIP Hardware (or software). Most VoIP service providers will provide the equipment you need to connect a standard phone. For some you will need to provide your own. In the case of Skype you will need to use your computer and the Skype software (see Skype section below).

VoIP Pros

• It is cheap. Especially international calling.
• It comes with you. It is easy to take your VoIP equipment with you when you travel (or even use it through a laptop / PDA etc). If you do this, calls you make are done at the same rate as if you were at home!
• VoIP does tricks. Get voicemails through email. Get a second phone number with a different area code. etc.

VoIP Cons

• Bad Internet connection = bad service. Since even good Internet connections have bad days and bad Internet connection have terrible days you will now get to understand the quality of your connection through poor voice quality and dropped calls.
• No power = no phone.
• e911. Not necessarily a negative but you should be aware of the differences between e911 and standard 911 service.

Now that you know why you should be looking twice at the "free phone" that cell service providers are offering, here are some ways to get a cell phone cheap that you are free to use as you like.

Deal 1 - Ebay
Ebay is a very good place to buy a cell phone cheap. The competition is extremely fierce and when there are dozens of sellers all offering the same phone you can take the pick of the deals.

Here are my tips to finding a deal:

• Shop the "phones only section". Phones only makes looking through the listing a lot less annoying.
• Know what you are looking for. Read up on phone reviews and find a few models that seem to fit your needs. Trying to simply browse the phone section is a little too overwhelming.
• Watch out for shipping costs. Some sellers will advertise a very low "buy it now" price but include an outrageous "shipping and handling" cost. Remember to take both the bid price and shipping into consideration. I have seen s&h charges of up at $100!
• Read sellers feedback carefully. This is very important to do before buying. If you find a deal you like, scan the sellers feedback for negative comments. If the deal is really sweet but their feedback stinks look elsewhere.
• Make sure "NEW" means "NEW". Some sellers will list "Like New" phones as "New" so make sure you know what you are bidding on.

Deal 2 - Cingular
At the moment Cingular has some amazing deals on cheap cell phones. If you select "Pay as You Go" from this page you will be looking at phones packaged with their prepaid plan option. Their phones start at $30 for refurbished Nokia 6010, 6030, 6061 as well as a few other manufactures options. The 6030 is probably the best deal in that line up, but there are not any bad choices.

What is the catch?

• You are stuck with Cingular. Well until you visit Nokia Free and unlock your own phone for free.
• 90 day warranty

And here is how I made the Cingular deal even better. I ended up with the Nokia 6030 for $10 or free depending on how you look at it.

First off the Nokia 6030 cell phone is listed on Cingular for $30. However if you go through Fatwallet, you can get a $20 rebate. $10 for a well reviewed phone? Yes, not only that but you get $10 worth of pre-paid Cingular along with it.

Don't get locked into a bad plan simply because they are "giving you a phone for free". It is not free - you are now stuck in a 1 or 2 year contract that might not be a good deal. Getting a cell phone cheap is not hard at all.

This is the new location of 'Cheap Home Phone Service'.

During the site move, some of the original page location shifted. This page is serving as a bridge to the correct page.

Sorry for the inconvenience.