I’m trying to evaluate VoIP solutions for my French company to offer North American (and those from other countries) customers local phone numbers to call us. The one solid provider I’ve found so far offers both local numbers in pretty-much every area code as well as the alternative of 1800 numbers. My question for the board is if it is still advantageous (preferable from an American customer’s point of view) to be able to call a toll-free 1800 number or if we get any random USA number (say in New York) if that is fine because unlimited nation-wide calling is standard on most/all American land-line and cell packages, does anyone still have to pay charges for calling out of state?
Lastly, if anyone happens to know of any great VoIP providers that could help a small business like us with this scenario I’d love to hear any recommendations!
In my experience, it’s standard for cellphone plans, but not standard for landlines. It’s been a while since I looked into landlines though, so it may have changed.
Unlimited long distance is not standard in the US on land lines. How it works is if you want long distance service you can either pay a large fee (almost as much as the base charge for the line) for unlimited long distance calling, or you can pay a small fee (a couple of dollars) for the ability to dial long distance, and then a per-minute fee on top of that. Unlimited long distance is standard on cell phones.
It’s also standard through VOIP services. Between cell services, and broadband internet bundling phone services, traditional landline service is shrinking.
Nevertheless, most businesses still seem to get toll free numbers. There may be a psychological factor - if the customer sees “call <area code> XXX XXXX” in ad copy it may give the impression that it isn’t a “real” nationwide business, but some outfit local to <area code> that is overreaching themselves. Or you don’t REALLY want to make it obvious to your west coast customers that you are based in New York, even though it really doesn’t matter much.
No, unless your customers are all under 25. Free long-distance is rare for landline phones. Lack of a toll-free number for customer service would be seen as a curious omission by most consumers and businesses. It wouldn’t be unheard of for business-to-business sales of expensive software or hardware, however.
I have been on Vonage for over 5 years. My free call area includes the US, Canada, and much of western Europe for a a single, annual $ 300+ charge. I think my neighbors still pay 10 cents a minute to call me and most of the state including the other half of the county. I think I used to pay Quest 3 cents a minute for out of state calls. I pay less for phone and cable net now than I did for phone and dial up 10 years ago with far better service. When phone traffic was high, I couldn’t connect much of the time.
Unlimited calling plans are available through most of the larger providers. Browse the websites of Southern Bell and other former Bell and ITT companies.
My thinking isn’t so much about the cost of long distance (though I’ll come back to that), it has more to do with remembering the number. If we know it starts with 1-800, we only need to remember the other 7 digits - 800 numbers are just so standard that we’ll remember that without having to think about it. If you’re using some random area code, we have to remember all 10. This is useful in making sure you’re easy to get a hold of and may boost the effectiveness of advertising.
As for the question about free long distance… most cell phones do have free long distance, but not all are unlimited minutes. I’m not sure what the proportions are nowadays, but plenty of cell phone plans still have a cap on free minutes each month. VOIP-type landlines will also give free minutes, but they may also have a cap on the number. (For example, my home phone with Vonage only has 500 minutes/month because I’m cheap. My office VOIP is unlimited for local calls, but limits free long-distance to 1500 minutes/month.) Traditional land lines are increasingly rare these days, but there are two demographics that seem stuck on them: businesses and the elderly.
I was going to say the opposite. The cellphone plans I know have limitations as to total minutes per month, landlines don’t. My landline thru Charter has unlimited long distance as part of a minimal-cost upgrade that includes just about every other feature you might want – call waiting, caller ID, selective blocking, etc.
I wouldn’t say nationwide calling is standard. Most cell plans limit your minutes per month, although unlimited calling is available for an extra fee. I have AT&T Wireless and I get 450 anytime minutes and 5000 so-called night and weekend minutes for $39.99 a month. Long distance is included with the plan. AT&T also lets you keep a large number of your unused minutes. I have over 4000 minutes banked. Unlimited calling is available to me for an additional $30.00 per month, but I don’t use what I have as it is. I have Vonage for my home phone, and I use their lite plan, which gives me 200 minutes per month, anywhere in the US and Canada, with long distance included. So, whether you have unlimited minutes largely depends on what the customer’s needs are and what he’s willing to pay. You would be better off with an 800-number, which the caller doesn’t have to pay for.
You may not be able to get an 800 number any more. They’re giving out 888 877 866 and maybe a some other 8nn numbers. I suppose old 800 numbers do come back into service though as people drop them.
Small business doper checking in, We use Comcast VOIP, costs us $29/month per line, we have 2 lines.
unlimited Nationwide long distance, voicemail, forwarding, etc, etc. Its all pretty much in one bundle. Only issue is, if internet goes down, so do our in house phones but we can use a smartphone to log into our account and forward our phones to a cell and carry on. The main business line normally forwards to my cell.
On your question of VOIP providers, assuming you have your own VOIP server or device, I have great experience with Vitelity.net. I have no affiliation with them, and you can get a toll-free number very inexpensively (2.4¢ /minute + $1.49 /month).
Depending on your projected volume, I would guess it’s not that much more expensive than a local “toll” number. I’ve used them for years and the quality is rock-solid.
In Canada, last time I checked, it was something like $20 for unlimited North American calling, over and above standard land-line service. Since telecommunication costs in Canada are basically highway robbery from lack of serious competition, I assume for standard telephone service elsewhere in the USA, options are cheaper than this. Of course, standard landline with all the doo-dads works out to about $35/month plus that $20; as did the $10/month cell service - $35 plus an extra $5 if we wanted caller ID. (See? Highway robbery…) The $20 plan was one of several choices, depending on how much we wanted and wanted to pay and how much we expected to call - get reduced rates, get unlimited evenings and weekends,etc. Cell service long distance is NOT free for me.
When you get a 1-800 also consider what area it covers. SOme 1-800’s work in Canada, some do not. Is it worth it for you to pay for the extra area coverage?
So generally people can have unlimited USA, but it’s not universal.