Cost

In general, phone service via VoIP costs less than equivalent service from traditional sources but similar to alternative Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) service providers. Some cost savings are due to using a single network to carry voice and data, especially where users have existing under-utilized network capacity they can use for VoIP at no additional cost. One must note that the maximum upstream in your Internet connection is the final throttle and service is not as good as standard telco services.

VoIP to VoIP phone calls on any provider are typically free, whilst VoIP to PSTN calls generally costs the VoIP user. Free VoIP to PSTN services are rare. A notable provider is VoIP User.

There are two types of PSTN to VoIP services: DID and access numbers. DID will connect the caller directly to the VoIP user while access numbers requires the caller to input the extension number of the VoIP user. Access numbers are usually charged as a local call to the caller and free to the VoIP user while DID usually has a monthly fee. There are also DID that are free to the VoIP user but is chargeable to the caller.

This text is licensed under the GNU Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article “VoIP".

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