If you have a business or are an individual who is interested in efficient, fast and inexpensive communication, VOIP is the right way to go.  This is a great way to talk to people if you are traveling, live far away from people you love, or in business.  If you are deciding on a VOIP phone, you should know that in terms of the choice of VoIP phones, both hardware- and software-based phones are available.

The hardware-based services give users two options: adapters and all-in-one phone units. Additionally, the price for both options can range from free up to several hundreds dollars. 

The software-based services, such as Skype and MediaRing, depend on a software program to be downloaded into your PC to handle the VOIP call.

 Keep in mind that because rate plans can change every day, some examples are listed below for reference. Vantage charges about twenty dollars every month for unlimited local calls and four cents per minute for long distance calls, or thirty dollars every month for unlimited local and long distance calling in the U.S. and to Canada, and five cents per minute to France and seven cents per minute to Mexico City.

In addition, packet8 offers unlimited calling in the U.S. and to Canada for twenty dollars per month and five cents per minute to China. Vantage has a rate plan of twenty five dollars monthly for all calls anywhere in the U.S. and Canada, and about four cents per minute to Australia.

Also, with Skype, basic service is free for non-commercial use and some advanced features will require a paid subscription or prepayment. 

It is also good to know that unlike the voice services provided by the traditional telephone companies, many fee-based features are usually included in the VoIP rate plan for free. Several let you check your voicemail online or have messages forwarded to your e-mail as sound files; many have call-forwarding plans.

Monthly taxes applied on the phone bill are currently lower for VOIP than for the voice services from the traditional calls.

 Therefore, VoIP providers offer telephone service at rates lower than the price from traditional calls for similar plan coverage.  However, as tempting as that may be, the complexity of Internet telephony in areas such as unpredictable service outages, network configuration hassles, and sometimes less desired call quality makes it a concern for some.

Voice over IP allows phone users to make and receive regular telephone calls over the broadband Internet and addressed the advantages and disadvantages. The costs of subscribing to a high-speed Internet connection and of purchasing equipment, such as routers, gateways, and PCs are not included in this discussion.

 Remember that there are many VoIP based service providers emerging every day, this article provides a snapshot of rate plans of certain familiar names. It includes incumbent telecommunications titans such as AT&T, Verizon, and Qwest. 

There are also non-traditional telephone service providers such as Time Warner Cable, Cox, Cablevision, EarthLink, and AOL and VoIP phone veterans.  Additionally, there are relative upstarts such as VoicePulse, Lingo, myPhoneCompany, SunRocket, Voiceglo, BroadVoice, Sunrisevoice, 1TouchTone, Vonage, VoiceAmerican, Skype, and MediaRing. Remember that some well recognized names such as SBC and Comcast are promising VoIP rollouts as well. Comcast said it would launch the service in twenty markets this year, starting with Philadelphia, Indianapolis and Springfield as well.