Do you currently have VoIP phone service in your home? If the answer to that question is no, then you should definitely consider it if you are interested in saving a significant amount of money on your monthly phone bill. So let’s say you are interested in switching to VoIP and saving money, chances are you’re no telecom expert, and probably don’t know what to look for when evaluation potential residential VoIP providers. It’s not a hard process, as long as you know what you’re doing, so I’ve put together a list of five factors that everyone should take into account when looking to buy residential VoIP phone service. Here they are:
1) Cost – By far the most important factor to review when switching to residential VoIP telephone service is the monthly rate that the VoIP provider charges. After all, the biggest reason you’re switching to VoIP in the first place is to save money! So when comparing prices, it’s important to remember that most residential VoIP providers won’t charge over nine or ten dollars per month per phone line, so don’t go with any providers that try to charge significantly more than that.
2) Feature Package – It’s very important that you choose a VoIP provider that can provide you the wealth of features that are pretty much standard on all VoIP systems these days. You might as well consider staying with your traditional telephone service provider if you don’t want to benefit from a bunch of new great features. You can get the ability to have calls automatically forwarded to your cell phone or office phone depending on time of day.
3) Reviews from Customers – As with any high-involvement purchase, its imperative that you do as much research as possible before spending a bunch of money on something that will end up costing you. Nobody knows how the product – in this case phone service – will actually work better than current and former customers. When it comes to residential VoIP service, there are literally thousands of reviews online that will help you get a feel for which providers are considered good.
4) Service and Support – If a company can’t provide sufficient service and support, then they don’t deserve your business. This is especially the case with VoIP service providers because their job is to provide such an essential service: phone service. If you have to deal with bad customer support every time there’s an issue, you will get very irritated.
5) Reliability – Your home phone service is something that needs to be up and running the vast majority of the time, especially if there is ever an emergency. In addition, a lot of people don’t get cell service where they live, so a landline is crucial. When looking for a residential VoIP provider, make sure that they provide very reliable service.
If you keep these five factors in mind when shopping around for a residential VoIP carrier, you will greatly reduce your chances of making any mistakes that will end up costing you your hard-earned money.
