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You never have to pay another long distance telephone bill again, thanks to the revolution of making voice calls over the Internet. Let me show you how we reached this wonderful point in long distance communications.
First consider the lowly home telephone. Over the past 100 and more years, it rang with excitement, marked progress for rural communities, then gradually became that dull thing upstaged by cell phones and Instant Messaging.
Switch to an Internet phone service provider and your telephone life will once again buzz with promise, fun, and new features. Best of all, you get all this for less money than ever before, and almost certainly less than you're paying now.
Switch to save money. Switch to get new features. Switch to connect to a world-wide community of like-minded people. Switch for any of these reasons or all three reasons or some completely different reason.
Internet phone service became possible when broadband Internet access reached a critical number of residences and small businesses (and this is why Internet phone service is often called broadband phone service ). Big companies switched from their traditional telephone service to Internet Telephony (another name for broadband phone service) using the data networks they built to connect their computers. Their long distances charges tumbled down lower than any other time in the history of big business.
Today, only stupid companies pay high long distance charges. Smart consumers like you (since you're looking at this book you must be smart) can follow their lead and never pay for another long distance call.
Let me repeat that: many of you will never have to pay for a long distance call again if you follow the suggestions in this book.
Saving money isn't the only reason to switch to a broadband phone service provider, but that reason pushed most of the early adopters. Since they paved the way, you can follow and move your traditional telephone service to one of hundreds of broadband phone service providers and start saving money and controlling your voice communications the way you want.
For the first time in history, you can control your telephone service. Better yet, you'll save money while getting more features.
About This Book
You have more telephone options today then ever before. This book helps you figure out which of the new broadband phone services will give you the best control over your voice communications. By "control" I mean the types of features you want to use and how much, or how little, you want to spend.
Want to call your brother in Russia for free? This book will show you how. Want to dictate where your phone rings by clicking your telephone line configuration page on a Web site? This book will show you how.
My goal? To give consumers just like you and your family and friends the information you need to feel comfortable upgrading your telephone service. This book cares little for big business users or technicians; the book aims to help any individual with a broadband connection improve his or her voice communications. Small businesses with just a few phone lines will also benefit.
Why You Need to Use This Book
Some broadband phone providers still struggle to market themselves well. Traditional media, such as newspapers, consumer magazines, and news Web sites, do a poor job of defining which broadband phone providers offer which type of service.
Did you know there are two completely different type of broadband phones? True. Choose one type to replace your existing traditional telephone line and all works great. Choose the other type as your telephone line replacement and you'll have a disaster for a telephone system.
Vonage replaces a phone just fine, and does a great job marketing themselves (read all about them in Chapter 5) and cable companies do a good job soliciting their current cable TV clients, but many excellent broadband phone companies display little marketing savvy but do offer great services and great pricing. I point out many of those companies and tell you how to compare the options you have to make the best choice for your situation.
Skype uses your computer for talking instead of a traditional style phone, but leads the world in registered broadband phone users: 21 million and counting. They did this by offering free (as in absolutely no money required for their software or service) calls to all other Skype users in the world. Read all about them in Chapter 6.
Choosing between the Vonage-type service and the Skype-type service makes a huge difference in your telephone happiness. Yet most people will benefit from a combination of the two services. This book reveals how to make your broadband phone service(s) work they way you want them to work.
How This Book Is Organized
I ordered the chapters in a logical way that answers the most questions for the most readers. However, I realize that few people (including me) read a technical book cover to cover.
This is your book, so read it how you want to read it. Jump to the spots that interest you or read the chapters in order and get into the flow. Either way you should learn plenty about the new types of telephone options available.
Chapter 1, How Internet Telephone Calls Work , provides background information highlighting the differences and similarities between the traditional telephone service available for over 100 years and the new wave of intelligent, inexpensive, and feature-rich broadband phone services.
Chapter 2, Your Internet Phone Options , describes the differences between the two types of broadband phone services.
Chapter 3, Free Internet Phone Features You're Paying For Now , details exactly what you are paying for today with a traditional telephone line, and what your options are if you switch to a broadband phone service provider.
Chapter 4, Choosing Your Internet Phone Equipment , lists all the equipment you may add to improve your broadband phone service if you wish. Equipment options abound to satisfy every equipment need and budget range.
Chapter 5, Vonage "The Broadband Phone Company" (and Competitors) , drills down deeply into the service offerings from Vonage, the leading broadband phone company following the phone-centric model. Multiple Vonage competitors join the fun as well.
Chapter 6, Skype and Other Computer-centric Services , shows the other side of the broadband phone world, including the world's most popular Internet telephone service from Skype.
Chapter 7, Talking to (and from) the Non-Connected , discusses how to call family and friends still using traditional telephone services. The 9-1-1 issue takes center stage so you can see how 9-1-1 calls are handled now and how much better emergency calls will be in the future with broadband phone services.
Chapter 8, Tricks, Tips, and Techniques for Advanced Users , covers multiple methods to handle extension phones with a new service, improve call quality, and manage your new broadband phone service.
Chapter 9, Wire-free Connections , examines the growing integration of cell and broadband phones, along with new phones for the computer-centric services.
In addition to the physical pages you hold now, extra material awaits you on the Web. First stop? http://www.gaskin.com/talk/ for updates on broadband phone company services.
Who This Book Is For
If you're tired of paying far more for a traditional telephone line than you think fair, this book is for you.
If you're curious about "those broadband phones" or wonder how Internet Telephony can help you, this book will answer you questions.
If you're curious about products you've heard about that let you talk to anyone in the world for free, this book shows you how.
If you're curious about new developments in voice communications and wonder when interesting features will appear, this book will tell you.
This book is for people who look at their old-fashioned telephone and want to save money, get more features, or both. This book will show you how to do all that and more.
I'd Like to Hear from You
Send me questions, comments, happy stories, and even tales of woe. I'll read them all and reply to all. I may not be able to fix your tale of woe, but I will listen. Send e-mail about this book to me at talk@gaskin.com.
My main Web site is http://www.gaskin.com , and the section devoted to this book is http://www.gaskin.com/talk/. You can read many helpful hints written for home office and small business users at http://www.GaskinGuides.com.
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Acknowledgements
There may be a single name on the cover for the author, but every book requires a large and dedicated team. This book is no exception.
Laura Lewin of StudioB put me together with O'Reilly to start this process. Brian Jepson of O'Reilly worked with me to develop, fine tune, and polish the manuscript. An entire team of O'Reilly production people remain hidden, their anonymity not reducing the amount of hard work required to convert this book from files created with Microsoft Office in my house to pounds of paper in bookstores.
Katherine Foster of Connors Communications enlisted the top executives of Vonage to give me their time for book details. Chief Executive Office Jeffrey Citron, Chief Technical Officer Louie Mamakos, and Executive Vice President of Operations Michael Tribolet all spent more time than necessary speaking with me about the industry in general and Vonage in particular. Kat James of Skype gathered information from all over Europe to ensure I understood how and why Skype choose their method of operation. Jupiter Research analyst Joseph Laszlo provided industry perspective and Julia Di Dominicus, Director, of Business Development at The Hub, one of New York's most advanced data and telecom networking facilities, gave me valuable industry insider information.
Thanks to my buddy Ed Tittel for early positive reinforcement on the contents and tone of this book. And thanks to Philip LeNir for jumping in to provide a good technical backstop and detailed Skype information.
Dedication
As always, this and everything else is for Wendy, Alex, and Laura.
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