Comparing VoIP service offerings

Today, the number of telephone companies and service providers offering IP-based phone service continues to grow (there are at least a dozen vendors in this space, and numbers appear to be growing rapidly). With so many VoIP calling plans on the market, it's helpful to have a good list of the features you should look for to compare costs and evaluate individual offerings. This got me to thinking about what one should look for when shopping around for VoIP service, which I present in the form of an alphabetized laundry list:

Indeed, there are yet more features and functions that can help potential customers distinguish among VoIP service offerings, but these are the ones my recent experience has convinced me are most noteworthy. Whenever you're shopping for a serv

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ice, however, careful attention, consideration, and comparison are always highly recommended! (Note: the companies that were surveyed for this story included AT&T, Vonage, VoicePulse, FWD, MyPhoneCompany, Time-Warner Cable, Packet8, Lingo IP Phone Service, Cheap Call, GalaxyVoice, LATIC Communications, and PCCall.com, among many others. Yahoo maintains a pretty complete list of Internet Telephony Service Providers.)

Ed Tittel is a regular contributor to numerous TechTarget Web sites, and the author of over 100 books on a wide range of computing subjects from markup languages to information security. He's also a contributing editor for Certification Magazine, and edits Que Publising's Exam Cram 2 series of cert prep books. E-mail Ed at etittel@techtarget.com.