http://www.blogigo.com/Phone_Cards_Calling_Cards This blog dedicated to prepaid telecom industry such as phone cards and calling cards, voip, telephony, and pbx. en phonecard phonecard Sun, 27 Apr 2008 23:29:00 +0200 daily 1 To be competitive in the market place phone card suppliers come up with all sorts of ways to make their phone cards look cheaper. Unsuspecting customers generally buy their phone cards based only on the per minute cost of the phone call. Calling card suppliers know this and try to hide the cost of the phone call in charges other than the call rate. These charges all add up to make the cost of the phone call breakeven after an average length phone call. Some of the more common ways of hiding calling costs are: • surcharges • peak rate call charges • monthly charges and weekly or daily maintenance or service fees • quick expiry • automatic recharge • frequent or timed disconnections • large billing increments • credit card transaction fees The surcharges are not the same as a connection or flag-fall fee. A surcharge is generally related to the length of a call and charged at a set time interval after you start speaking, so for example after 5... Sun, 27 Apr 2008 23:29:00 +0200 http://www.blogigo.com/Phone_Cards_Calling_Cards/Dangers-of-Using-Phone-Cards-to-Call-Overseas/10/ http://www.blogigo.com/Phone_Cards_Calling_Cards/Dangers-of-Using-Phone-Cards-to-Call-Overseas/10/ It seems to be impossible to keep up with all the new trends in business today. It's hard to know which trends are just flash in the pan gimmicks and which are valuable tools that your business can actually benefit from. It's important to do your research. Find out what these tools can do for you and make sure it is right for your business. One of these recent trends is the hosted PBX service. These “virtual” phone systems can automatically answer, screen and route all incoming calls to your office, home and/or cell phone. Although they have been on the market for some time now, hosted PBXs have recently been getting the attention of more and more small and medium sized businesses. Is this technology right for your business? What Can It Do For Me? First you have to ask yourself, “How will my business benefit from a hosted PBX?” A hosted PBX service has many different aspects that a business owner can take advantage of. A good service will have numerous different features and... Sun, 23 Mar 2008 03:27:08 +0100 http://www.blogigo.com/Phone_Cards_Calling_Cards/Hosted-PBX-Is-It-Right-For-You/9/ http://www.blogigo.com/Phone_Cards_Calling_Cards/Hosted-PBX-Is-It-Right-For-You/9/ Voice Over IP (VOIP) is a relatively new technology. Voice Over IP allows people to leave behind the old and very traditional analogue phone networks and now adapt in favor of the very new and very progressive Internet-based calling system infrastructure. Using this technology for your communications actually works out cheaper for you in the long run as it means you won’t need to pay for calls if the people you are calling and speaking to are also using the same VOIP system. Voice Over IP runs on several different types of infrastructure. This is the main reason why you should take the time to do your homework and find out how it works and what is involved, before you even consider setting up a Voice Over IP network at your home or place of business. When you do your homework you will see that invariably VOIP offers lots of advantages over and above the standard traditional telephone based analogue service that most people are currently using. Let’s take a moment to examine some of the... Sun, 24 Feb 2008 04:51:31 +0100 http://www.blogigo.com/Phone_Cards_Calling_Cards/Take-Advantage-Of-Internet-Phone-Calls/8/ http://www.blogigo.com/Phone_Cards_Calling_Cards/Take-Advantage-Of-Internet-Phone-Calls/8/ Buying a new business phone system is one of the most important purchases any business will ever make. The selection of a phone system can either bring a business closer to its customers and clients or, cause confusion and chaos amongst all that use or interact with it. It is therefore essential that you choose the right phone system for your business needs. The telephone is quite often the fastest and easiest way to reach customers and clients. It should also be the fastest and easiest way for them to reach you. It should be flexible enough to be able to cover all of your company’s needs and handle all calls appropriately. The last thing any business wants is for its important business callers and customers to be routed incorrectly, disconnected, or faced with a long list of confusing automated options. There are lots of factors that need to be taken into consideration when choosing a new business telephone system. Below are a few of the main ones: 1. You need enough capacity... Sat, 26 Jan 2008 03:28:00 +0100 http://www.blogigo.com/Phone_Cards_Calling_Cards/Buying-a-New-Business-Phone-System/7/ http://www.blogigo.com/Phone_Cards_Calling_Cards/Buying-a-New-Business-Phone-System/7/ Rapid development of the VoIP industry quickly lead to the increased rivalry in the segment. VoIP providers can no longer survive offering low-quality and limited services. Customers demand more for less. On a certain stage of business development any VoIP provider is put at a dilemma: try to squeeze the last juices out of the business by offering low-quality services for the competitive price, or constantly improve the quality and range of available services, diminishing the profit margin sometimes even to zero. If previous investments were considerably low, the first method can work, though every next day makes such a scenario less and less attractive. And if you have already invested quite a some into this business, it’s not wise to leave it now, as it is one of the most actively developing IT segments. As the rivalry between VoIP providers increases, customers benefit from the constantly increasing “quality/price” aspect. To attract new clients and support the loyalty of the... Mon, 17 Dec 2007 17:55:02 +0100 http://www.blogigo.com/Phone_Cards_Calling_Cards/Additional-VoIP-Services-Pay-Less-Get-More/6/ http://www.blogigo.com/Phone_Cards_Calling_Cards/Additional-VoIP-Services-Pay-Less-Get-More/6/ The integrated voice features, for example unified messaging and “click-to-dial”, became available with circuit-switched PBX systems. Complex coordination of voice and data networking environments are required. IP network level however, eliminates much of this complexity, attaining results which are lower costs from consolidating equipment and rapid integration with business applications. The requirements necessary for IP PBX systems to successfully integrate with a packet network are: •Reliability to minimize the loss of voice packets and control network delay. •Quality of Service (QoS) to ensure that voice packets are transmitted through each network element with the correct priority relative to other types of packets. Real Time Protocol (RTP) RTP uses a set of Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) standard protocols for reliably transporting voice, video, and data among participating parties across a packet network. Comments requests include: •The RTP... Mon, 17 Dec 2007 17:53:37 +0100 http://www.blogigo.com/Phone_Cards_Calling_Cards/IP-PBX-and-Its-Uses/5/ http://www.blogigo.com/Phone_Cards_Calling_Cards/IP-PBX-and-Its-Uses/5/ Medium- or large-scale companies to corporation need to invest in digital phone service. From a regular landline phone to a digital Internet phone… everything that is done traditionally yesterday is today’s innovation: VoIP. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) or IP telephony is the routing of voice conversations over a public network (Internet) or private network (Intranet). Internet is the most powerful tool in the computing world. Nevertheless, it is a necessity just like telephones or mobile phones. Every communication, every transaction, every information is online. And with the convergence of the Internet and the telephone, the possibilities are boundless especially in business. Using VoIP, any computer or telephone connected to the Internet with a broadband connection can call another computer or phone at a fraction of usual cost, or absolutely free. Business VoIP works in four ways: PC-to-PC, PC-to-PHONE and vice-versa, and PHONE-to-PHONE. And depending on your VoIP... Sat, 15 Dec 2007 18:48:17 +0100 http://www.blogigo.com/Phone_Cards_Calling_Cards/The-Rise-of-VoIP/4/ http://www.blogigo.com/Phone_Cards_Calling_Cards/The-Rise-of-VoIP/4/ Business phone systems are a boon to modern businesses, especially small businesses. They reduce costs make it easier to handle calls, and are easy to install. With falling prices, business phone systems have come within reach of most small businesses. Investing in a good business phone system ensures greater productivity and efficiency, and helps manage customer relationships and relationships with vendors, as well as people working within the organization. Depending on the features and technology used, business phone systems are of three kinds, KSU less, Key Systems and Private Branch Exchange (PBX). A fourth type is a Hybrid of two systems. This article focuses on the different types of business phone systems and their uses. KSU less Business Phone System : KSU Less Business Phone systems are meant for companies that employ less than 10 people. However, this supposition is based simply on the number of extensions – KSU less systems have less than 10 extensions. However, even... Sat, 15 Dec 2007 18:45:00 +0100 http://www.blogigo.com/Phone_Cards_Calling_Cards/Types-of-Business-Phone-Systems/3/ http://www.blogigo.com/Phone_Cards_Calling_Cards/Types-of-Business-Phone-Systems/3/ Calling cards make life simple for many people today. In the past, people were limited to using pay phones to make long distance phone calls, or to making collect calls from their own home phone. Calling cards allow users to put a certain amount of money on a card that enables them to make long distance phone calls whenever they choose. Calling cards resemble credit cards and may be used to either prepay for your service or you can pay as you go. With a standard calling card, you can use the card and the charges for your phone calls will appear on your monthly bill. Many people find that this is a great way to make phone calls when away from home. When choosing a phone card you will need to assess your individual needs before determining which type of card is best for you. Also, consider how much each call will cost when using a standard calling card as opposed to using a prepaid service. You may also choose to purchase calling cards that use a Pin or a Pin Free service. With a pin... Sat, 15 Dec 2007 18:40:07 +0100 http://www.blogigo.com/Phone_Cards_Calling_Cards/Calling-Cards-The-Cheapest-Way-to-Communicate/2/ http://www.blogigo.com/Phone_Cards_Calling_Cards/Calling-Cards-The-Cheapest-Way-to-Communicate/2/ The world has become a much smaller place in the last decade. The isolation is fast fading as advances in communication have made it possible to talk to people on the other side of the globe without a great deal of expense. The internet is the main driving force behind this trend. The ability to communicate with people by means of written messages or chat rooms on the internet has led to a desire to speak to people on the telephone also. There has always been a need for international calls for business purposes, but now personal reasons have become important as well. The telephone industry has been forced to deal with the cost issue of international calls. The introduction and wide spread use of VoIP phone service has been the reason. VoIP stands for "voice over internet provider", and it converts the analog phone signal to a data signal for transmission. Several companies are now offering international calling for a low per minute rate. VolP phone service has some advantages over... Sat, 15 Dec 2007 18:31:00 +0100 http://www.blogigo.com/Phone_Cards_Calling_Cards/Options-for-Cheap-International-Calling/1/ http://www.blogigo.com/Phone_Cards_Calling_Cards/Options-for-Cheap-International-Calling/1/