Not too long ago, intercontinental phone calls were very costly. Today, we have literally hundreds of ways to make cheaper phone calls, the most famous of which would be Skype. In most developed countries, even the phone companies themselves are using Internet technologies to originate and terminate calls, without the caller necessarily even knowing it's happening. In Europe, "triple-play" operators are very common. The three elements are DSL Internet access, television and telephony. Typical offers are 2 to 20 Mbit/sec Internet connection and unlimited calling within the country of origin. The reason this is innovative today is that formerly, all calls inclusing local, were metered.

In France, the typical cost of a DSL+ unlimited phone calls without TV is around $50 per month. For that price you have unlimited calling of fixed (non-cell) numbers in France and an 8 Mbits/sec DSL connection. For reference, if you download (not stream) a 45-minute TV series episode from iTunes, it takes about 13 minutes at 8Mbits/sec.

The most important part of this technology is not the low cost, but the potential services to your family and to a greater extent to your business, small or large.

VoIP or ITSP (Internet Telephony Service Provider)

There are several pay as you go VoIP services (Voice Over IP is Internet telephony). Nufone, VoicePulse, Teliax, I Connect Here, Junction Networks are but a few of these in the USA. I use all of these to make my SoHo operation flexible and assure what we call today's "mobility". Here is how these have helped us stay in touch both personally and professionally.

Vacation: What if we are away for 4 to six weeks in another country? My company has a small office and we have an open-source Asterisk pbx installed there on an older PC. You can learn more about Asterisk at their site or on a weekly Friday conference call at VoIP Users Conference. The office pbx is connected to our two ordinary copper wire incoming phone lines using special hardware. The pbx also accepts connections for IP phones like the one pictured above. I take one of these with me in my bag when I'm on the road. When I plug it into an Internet connection, it actas as a normal extension allowing me to make and take calls, all without extra charge other than any cost of the Internet connection itself, in a hotel for example.

More flexible than simple call forwarding

When we go on vacation, we change the hours calls are put through automatically, since it's 9 hours earlier in that zone. Callers hear a custom recording explaining that they can expect an answer by email or call again starting at the time we set. We can make calls through our pbx from California to our city, again, entirely free.

Toll-free numbers to encourage business callers and family

Toll-free US numbers for Europeans (or numbers in other cities in the world for US residents). Yes, since VoIP routes calls for a reduced tarif, we can accept tollfree calls from customers or prospects in the USA via our 800 and 866 numbers as well as calls from other countries at local rates (caller paid). Toll-free calls cost us about 2-3 cents per minute and are well worth it. There is usually a modest ongoing charge for the numbers, around $3-4 per month each. The great thing about these services is that you can start them for no setup fee and end them anytime with no contractual obligation.

Keeping track of your hours

Another great benefit of this service for businesses is the fact that call data like date, time and length are recorded. I am able to see how much time we spend on the phone with any particular customer, a project (if I care to annotate the data on an ongoing basis) and each service provider, since we have at least a dozen of these.

If you wish to get more familiar with some of the tricks that can be done with VoIP, you might consider joining the currently free service Google purchased, Grand Central. Or, look for an operator of these services in your area. I believe any small business can benefit from learning more about VoIP services, but it isn't about saving money, it's about value-added services and control.