There are countless companies that provide numerous options for your telecommunication needs. Whether you need a simple phone line to call family and friends, a high speed hub for coordinating your business, or anything in between or beyond, you can find the right combination of services for you and your budget.
Home Phone Service
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In a world where family members and workplaces are often far away, it's more important than ever to have an easy means of communication. Home telephone service is the most basic form of telecommunication, and, with the many calling-plan options that are available, you can tailor your home phone service to your needs. |
Local Calling - Local calling includes all calls made within your immediate calling radius. This area will likely encompass the town you live in and possibly some of the surrounding area as well. The boundaries of your immediate calling radius are determined by the federal government but can also vary depending on your specific calling plan.
Regional Calling – Immediately surrounding your local calling area is the regional calling area. This can encompass surrounding towns or counties and even your entire state. Again, this area is determined by the federal government. Most often, local and regional calls are grouped into one category. Finding a company that does this will help you to simplify your calling plans and your bill.
Long-Distance Calling – Calls made outside of your local and regional calling areas, are considered to be long-distance calls. This can mean in-state, state-to-state, and even some international calling.
Make sure you find out the boundaries of each of your calling areas. Knowing what areas your friends, family members, and co-workers are in will be valuable when making decisions about which calling plans and options you need.
You will most likely have several options in regard to your local, regional, and long-distance calling plans. For each, you may choose to have a flat-rate plan or a plan based on minutes. A flat-rate plan gives you unlimited calling for a flat monthly fee. With a minutes-based plan, you'll pay a per-minute rate in addition to a moderate monthly fee (usually only a few dollars). One drawback to a plan based on minutes is that you may have to pay the full-minute rate for fractions of minutes used. For example, if you're charged 10 cents per minute and you make a call for only 30 seconds, you could still be charged 10 cents for that call. This depends on the policies of individual phone companies. If you don't make very many phone calls, however, per-minute plans can often be cheaper than flat-rate plans.
International Calling – Any call made outside of your home country is an international call. For international calling, you can choose from unlimited calling plans and per-minute calling plans just like with local, regional, and long-distance calling. With international calling, you often have different types of available per-minute plans. If this is the case, you will be able to pay either a flat-rate per minute or rates that vary based on the country, region, or city you are calling.
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Most phone companies will offer one flat-rate plan that gives you unlimited calling for local, regional, long-distance, and even international calls. This is the simplest type of plan to deal with, but, if you're sure you're not going to be making either long-distance or international calls, you may be able to save money by foregoing a long-distance or international calling plan. Regional and local calling are usually grouped together, so you won't be able to forego having a regional calling plan. |
Internet Phone - In addition to traditional telephone providers, there are many companies that provide phone service through the Internet. In many cases these companies provide unlimited local, regional, long-distance, and international service for one flat rate. Internet phone service can be a cheap option, but remember that because your phone service is tied to your Internet, if, for some reason, you lose Internet service, you'll lose your phone service as well.
Internet Service
The Internet connects people around the world in new ways every day. It's become a center for business, shopping, and social networking. You can share music, pictures, videos, and ideas with almost anyone you wish to, wherever they might be. Consider what you'll be using the Internet for before you select a company.
Internet service is provided by different companies in various ways. Some use satellite, while others use cable or phone lines. Of course, every company claims that their way is the fastest and cheapest, so finding the best option for you can be tough. You should check out companies' track records before choosing one. If you have a friend or family member that has used a particular Internet provider you should ask them about their experience. You can also look at online reviews to see actual customer feedback.
Most Internet service providers charge you a monthly fee for service in addition to any installation fees. The prices of different services vary depending on the speed and equipment necessary for a particular service. For example, your total cost may be higher if you have to purchase a satellite dish or other equipment (though these often come free with your service). Make sure you ask your potential Internet service providers about all applicable fees before you sign a contract.
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| TIP: You may be able to cut costs by making sure you're not paying for more speed than you need. T1 lines and the like will offer very high speed, but at higher costs. If you don't need that kind of speed, you may want to stay away from that type of service. |
Some companies offer mobile Internet as an add-on to your service. Mobile Internet service gives you an Internet connection almost anywhere in the world via satellite uplink. This service can be handy if you do a lot of online work on the go, but if you don't, it may not be cost effective in the long run.
Be sure to read all of the fine print for every service option you consider. Your monthly charges often will increase after you've had the service for a year. These offers can still be the best choice for you, but you wouldn't want to be surprised when you're monthly bill suddenly becomes more expensive.
Wireless Phone Service
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| Wireless (cell) phones allow you to make calls from almost anywhere, giving you the ability to remain connected to others while in transit. Wireless phone service companies offer a variety of plans and packages. First, you should decide whether you want an individual or family plan. Individual plans will have one phone per plan and all options (minutes, data plans, etc.) will apply only to that phone. Family plans allow you to bundle multiple phones together. In this case, you can either choose an unlimited calling plan for a flat rate, or you can have a pool of minutes per-month that all phones on the plan use. |
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You may also wish to purchase a data plan for your cell phone. A data plan allows you to access the Internet and download content with your cell phone. There are different data plans whose rates are based on the total size of all the content you download and view with your phone. In other words, you will be charged per megabyte used. As with calling plans, you may be able to choose to pay a flat rate for unlimited data usage. You can include data as part of your family plan as well. Again, this will allow you to have unlimited data usage for all your phones or to have a monthly megabyte allowance from which to draw.
Service Bundles
Bundling your services together can be another way to save money. Many telecommunication providers offer flat rates and discounted services if you bundle two or more services together. In many cases, you can actually have your TV, Internet, home phone, and wireless services all on one bill. Simplifying your bill in this way will most likely save you some frustration, not to mention paper. Remember, service fees and costs add up quickly, but you can cut them down by eliminating services you don't need. |
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