Cheap Home Phone Service is Now VoIP

Where do you find the cheapest home phone services? The low cost provider for many consumers is now a competitive VoIP provider. But do you know were to find the best deals on VoIP service? They're not necessarily the ones you see on TV.

VoIP is something fairly new in the telephone business. It stands for Voice over Internet Protocol. That's a hint as to how it works. The Internet Protocol is what computers use to upload and download data on the Internet. The "voice over" part indicates that instead of sending email or Web pages, we are using the Internet to send voice over its broadband connections.

So why VoIP? Traditional telephone service is delivered on copper wires to your home. It's a switched analog technology that has been used since the days of Alexander Graham Bell, with some technology updates along the way. But pretty much any phone you've ever had will still work on those analog lines. The standards have remained the same over the years.

The other thing that hasn't changed is that the local telephone company owns those wires that come to your house. Since deregulation of the telephone system some twenty or so years ago they no longer have exclusive rights to those lines. But the prices charged to competing companies to lease those lines is so high that few competitors can offer you a better deal and still make a profit. A few years ago they could, but changes in the regulations have driven most of them out of the marketplace.

This is where VoIP comes in. Competing phone companies have figured out that the way around leasing telephone wires is to avoid them. Instead, they use your DSL or Cable broadband service as the connection between your phone and their switching system. Since you already pay for your broadband service so that your computer can connect to the Internet, it's not very expensive to add telephone service to the same connection.

There are many providers of VoIP services now, but how do you find the best deals? Well it turns out there is a new online search engine that specializes in just VoIP phone services. It's called Affordable VoIP. All you need to do is decide on whether you want residential or business service, any other options to narrow the search results, and run the search. In seconds you'll get a list of the available VoIP plans organized by price with the cheapest deal at the top of the page.

One option you should definitely check is the box for "Adaptor/Router Included." The adaptor box is what connects your regular telephone that you already have to your Internet modem or router. Many of these adaptors have built-in provisions to share you computer and phone on the same line. A router, if you have one, will also do this sharing. But you need the adaptor box so that you don't have to turn on your computer to use your phone.

Ready to give it a try? It's fast and free to use anytime day or night. Visit Affordable VoIP and search for VoIP phone service now.